To 'build back better' we must first be able to build
Finding bipartisan compromise on the size and scope of an infrastructure bill will be hard enough. But policymakers are ignoring perhaps the most essential issue — permitting, which has become a maze of process obstacles that only Congress can address.
The tangible benefits of projects initiated today with new funding, won’t be realized for 5 to 7 years. After years of project design, engineering, planning and financing, the 2-to-4 year permitting process commences, pushing orders for new windmills, solar panels, transmission lines, charging stations, construction equipment, steel, concrete and labor contracts years into the future. Only after all of that can the 2 to 3 years of construction begin.
The consequences are easy to see. The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (which I directed from 2018-2020), analyzed 69 major projects, and found that bureaucratic delays cost developers $100 billion. New wind and solar projects take 2.3 years (on average) to receive federal permits, 3.3 years for electricity transmission projects, and 4.7 years for major new road projects. On average, 20 to 30 percent of total project funding is wasted on unnecessary red tape.
Permitting confusion among three agencies within the Department of Interior has stymied an $800 million solar project in Nevada. A proposed 300-mile electricity line to deliver renewable electricity from Idaho to Oregon commenced permitting in 2010, yet federal agencies can’t find a way forward on more than 30 federal and 50 state and local permitting actions and another 100 water-crossing approvals. One highway project in the Southwest was stalled for years over back-and-forth between 19 so-called “cooperating agencies,” negotiating over at least nine major federal permitting actions. Federal infighting and bureaucratic battles add tens of millions to project price tags.
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/553980-to-build-back-better-we-must-first-be-able-to-build