Michael Cloud Asks Energy Sec. About Speeding Up Permitting Process Amid Competition With China

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright about permitting processes.

Transcript

00:00At this time, I'd like to recognize the distinguished vice chair of this subcommittee,

00:05Mr. Cloud, from Texas, for five minutes.

00:08Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

00:09I come from the district that's home to Corpus Christi, the number one energy export port,

00:14so we were very thankful to see your removing of the LNG export ban.

00:19I had, just some months ago, was at an energy summit, and there were 14 other countries there,

00:28had the opportunity to speak to them, and the first question they had from other countries was,

00:34how soon will you be able to send LNG to us?

00:39And that was their biggest concern because of all the wonderful benefits of it,

00:43and certainly us producing energy is a lot better than them going to other countries

00:49who don't do it nearly as well as we do.

00:51So thank you for that.

00:53This conversation is really so important.

00:55I appreciate what you've done and what you bring to this office in the sense

01:00because you have always made the connection between energy production and human flourishing

01:07and uplift and understanding that our policies are actually directly connected to humans advancing

01:15and being able to heat our homes and travel and all those different kind of things.

01:19So I've appreciated the heart you brought to it.

01:21And just, you know, about a year and a half ago, as I talked to different energy producers,

01:26the conversation was kind of like everybody was trying to get their piece of the pie.

01:29And as you mentioned, with the advancement of data, AI, everything that we're looking at in the future

01:36and expecting exponential energy growth, it's more like how much pie can we make

01:40than it is everybody having to kind of fight for their piece of the pie.

01:45Having said that, I also appreciate your understanding how it's so important

01:51that we prioritize consistent, affordable, baseload energy.

01:55We've had a lot of investment in intermittent energy sources

01:58that isn't returning a good necessary ROI to the American taxpayer

02:04or to the industry, for that matter.

02:07And some of our investments have had the effect of distorting the economy

02:11in a way that's not very helpful or natural.

02:15As we're competing with China, one of the biggest concerns that I have

02:20is just the speed it takes to get things done in our country.

02:26And I'm wondering if you could speak to that,

02:29what you could do in your agency to help with permitting processes

02:32and those kind of things, what you need help from us in Congress,

02:36any advice you would have on what we need to do

02:39to work with the NRC or other regulatory agencies

02:43to speed up the permitting process?

02:46We used to be known in America as people can get things done

02:48and do it pretty effectively and quickly,

02:51and now that seems to not be the case.

02:53We need to return that.

02:54So how do we go about that?

02:57Boy, that's the big question.

02:58It is a very big question.

03:00It's certainly one of the reasons I'm here.

03:02I just came from abroad.

03:04I was in Central Europe last week,

03:07and I traveled in the Middle East a week or two before that.

03:10And everyone wants to invest in America, right,

03:13because you've got rule of law and you can do business in America.

03:15And there is a growing concern that we can't get permits.

03:19We're ready to bring a lot of money,

03:20and obviously everybody wants us to build a data center

03:24or a power plant or whatever it is their investment is going to,

03:26but it's taken us forever to get a permit.

03:30This is making our society more stagnant.

03:34It's pushing manufacturing and things overseas.

03:37It's chilling investment in our country,

03:39which means less jobs are created in our country,

03:41less pressure to push wages up that we all want to see.

03:45So it is absolutely critical.

03:46I can tell you a few things we did at the Department of Energy.

03:50For example, in the national labs, think of OSHA, right?

03:54We have a very robust, maybe overly robust,

03:57health regulatory agency that all businesses comply with,

04:01including my former businesses when I was in a different life.

04:05At the Department of Energy, you have to comply with all that.

04:08And then another layer,

04:09another layer that's mostly duplicative

04:11and slightly different in some areas.

04:13You can't even get most of the people to bid on building something

04:17because they're not going to go through that extra hoop.

04:19It costs the Department of Energy to build like a laboratory building

04:23where scientists are working on computers 60% more

04:26than it would cost a business across the street to build the same thing.

04:31So the government, of course, is just...

04:32And so we...

04:33I've convened all the national lab directors

04:35within two weeks of my arrival in the doors

04:38to tell us, how can I help you?

04:40How can we make things more efficiently?

04:41Now, that's just in the labs.

04:43But they gave me a bunch of lists,

04:44and we are rapidly implementing them

04:46so we can build stuff quicker and faster

04:48and remove some of this red tape.

04:49But for commercial businesses, they have a ton as well.

04:53The National Energy Dominance Council was really created

04:56to get all of the agencies, EPA, Interior, Energy, Commerce, Treasury,

05:03together of what...

05:05And what we basically do is we listen to businesses everywhere.

05:09Why can't you invest in that?

05:11Or what's slowing you down?

05:12And we are trying to knock things over that we can that are regulatory.

05:15But I think some kind of congressional permitting reform

05:19is necessary as well.

05:21Part of our team is working with people in Congress.

05:24What's the bipartisan way to get bills

05:26that just put timelines on certain things?

05:30You know, NEPA is to protect our environment.

05:32Everybody wants clean air and clean water.

05:34But if a NEPA thing makes something last six or seven years

05:38to get approved, most things just simply won't get built.

05:41It just means nothing happens.

05:43So thank you for expressing that sentiment.

05:44I think it's a huge problem in our country.

05:46How can we advance if we can't build anything?

05:49Yeah.

05:50Thank you for that.

05:51One thing I did want to...

05:52Because this seemed like a headline to me,

05:54and we kind of skated through it,

05:56but the Biden administration in their last few days in office

06:00sent out $100 billion as opposed to...

06:02Could you speak to that?

06:04I mean, that seems almost criminal.

06:07Are those employees still employed with the DOE?

06:11I mean, you know, that's...

06:11Anyway, that just seems to work.

06:13I'm also on the Oversight Committee,

06:14so I have a natural penchant for looking into stuff like this.

06:19But could you speak to what really happened there?

06:22It's extremely concerning.

06:24And so to balance the moving things forward, projects forward,

06:28but to understand how did this happen, what was in it?

06:31I could go on.

06:32There are clauses in loan agreements

06:34that are in all previous loan agreements

06:35that somehow worked in the loan agreements rushed out at the end.

06:40So this is a longer topic, but extremely concerning.

06:44A little over $40 billion of commitments and loans

06:48out of the loan program office in 15 years,

06:51and then nearly $100 billion in 76 days.

06:56That's...

06:57I think we should all be concerned about that.

06:59And that's one of the reasons I'm trying to assemble a top-notch team

07:02and be very careful that we do things in a responsible way.

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