CERAWEEK: Panelists say AI race could speed up US passage of permitting reform

The prospect of the US losing ground in the global artificial intelligence race could prove a catalyst for Congress to finally pass legislation to streamline the process for building energy-related infrastructure, panel speakers said.

"I think we need to get permitting reform," Salim Samaha, global head of energy at BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners, said March 10 during the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston. "And I think it's interesting that if there's one thing that might get us permitting reform, it's the fear of falling behind on AI."

Industry experts consider permitting reform as essential to addressing the country's need to increase power generation and other domestic energy production to meet the anticipated surge in electricity demand from data centers in the years ahead. Bipartisan talks on broad permitting legislation concerning the electric grid and all types of energy projects collapsed in the waning weeks of the Biden administration, but President Donald Trump has indicated through an executive order he will seek to speed up the permitting process for energy projects, including transmission.

Samaha said the nation's current permitting policies are not conducive to building the sort of infrastructure needed to address demand growth from power-hungry data centers. A US Department of Energy report released in December 2024 estimates that data centers could account for up to 12% of nationwide electricity consumption by 2028 -- a threefold increase from 2023 levels.

"On policy, I think it's been unnecessarily too costly, too long, too difficult to build a lot in this country, and I say this as someone who's investing a lot to build significant infrastructure," Samaha said. "Everything's got to be done right, but I think that in the past, some of the red tape and the litigation has gone on for too long and the system ends up costing consumers. So that clearly needs to be streamlined in the right way."

John Browne, co-founder and chairman of BeyondNetZero, General Atlantic's climate growth equity fund, said he was "all in favor of speeding up," but he cautioned that policymakers should proceed carefully on reforms.

"Getting rid of red tape is very important, [but] we have to make sure it's the right red tape," said Browne, who was the CEO of BP from 1995-2007. "Because if something happens, we then redouble the amount of red tape that we started with because of an accident or someone inadvertently creates something that doesn't produce anything with government money."

Samaha and Browne spoke on a panel that came a few hours after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a press briefing at CERAWeek that the Trump administration's goal is to streamline the process for building energy-related infrastructure. Wright's remarks mostly focused on oil and gas production, but the former CEO of oil field services company Liberty Energy said during his January confirmation hearing before the US Senate that he would back reforms designed to speed up transmission projects that would strengthen the country's grid.

Rebecca Kujawa, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, said in an interview that it's not just data center demand growth that provides an incentive for the Trump administration and Congress to tackle permitting reform, pointing out that the manufacturing sector is also poised to drive some of the load growth anticipated for the US.

"Permitting reform has been a hot topic of discussion for quite a number of years and going in between a number of administrations," Kujawa said March 10. "It really needs congressional action to really make a difference. And I do think there are quite a number of groups across both sides of the aisle that would like to see permitting reform."