Red Tape Is Strangling Our Energy Future, and It’s Time to Cut It Loose
In a country blessed with abundant natural gas and unmatched innovation, it should never take years of bureaucratic limbo just to replace a pipeline valve or expand existing infrastructure. But that’s exactly the broken state of American energy regulation today, thanks to outdated rules written in the 1980s and four years of deliberate neglect under the Biden administration.
A new report from the ALFA Institute covered in Breitbart hits the nail on the head: “This is red tape masquerading as oversight.” And it’s costing American energy workers their jobs, raising power bills for families, and threatening blackouts just as AI and data center growth are about to supercharge our electricity demand.
At Power The Future, we’ve been sounding the alarm for years. The Biden-era war on energy wasn’t just waged in high-profile bans and executive orders, it was buried in obscure rulemakings, inflated environmental hurdles, and regulatory inertia. While Biden’s EPA and Department of Energy chased green dreams, they left the grid exposed and the gas industry shackled.
Now, the chickens have come home to roost.
The ALFA report zeroes in on one key fix that would make an immediate difference: updating FERC’s Blanket Certificate Program, which was created to fast-track low-risk natural gas projects but hasn’t been meaningfully modernized in decades.
Here’s the issue: the cost cap for automatic approvals is stuck at $14.5 million. Even for “prior notice” authorizations, it’s just $41 million. Meanwhile, pipeline construction costs have soared 268% since 2006. That means nearly 40% of projects that should have qualified for faster review were instead thrown into years-long delays.
That’s insanity. And it’s entirely preventable.
As the report notes, America is staring down a 25–50% surge in electricity demand by 2050, largely thanks to AI and server farms. And yet more than 122,000 megawatts of dispatchable capacity are set to retire.
That’s a recipe for rolling blackouts, spiking prices, and American decline.
Let’s be clear: if we don’t build, we will fall behind. If FERC doesn’t act, if Congress doesn’t step in, if Biden’s team continues its war on gas, the outcome will be devastating for our economy, our grid, and our national security.
The good news? President Trump declared an energy emergency in January. Now it’s time to back it up by reforming the very agencies standing in the way.
Because when capital, demand, and landowner support align, Washington shouldn’t be the reason the lights go out.
July 18, 2025