Podcast: An Appetite for Corruption with Josh Silver

Last month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the FREEDOM (Fighting for Reliable Energy and Ending Doubt for Open Markets) Act. The bill aims to address challenges associated with what has become one of the most widely discussed policy topics in American politics: energy. Recognizing that permitting delays, as well as the weaponization of permitting against oil and gas under Biden and against clean energy under Trump, have kept gigawatts of power from coming online, the bill introduces significant reforms to the energy project approval process. By accelerating the addition of new generation capacity to the grid, these reforms would help meet growing demand and reduce costs for consumers. It arrives with something increasingly rare in this Congress, namely broad support from voters of both parties, a point I will return to.

The bill is primarily procedural rather than determinative. Concerned with the use of executive power to stall projects, it hands the agency reviewing an energy project a fixed window, generally 90 days for a routine authorization and one to two years for a complex one. If that window closes with no decision, the delay is treated as agency action unlawfully withheld, allowing the project sponsor to seek relief in federal court. The court may compel the agency to act, set binding deadlines for each remaining step, or hand the unfinished analysis to an independent contractor working under the court's own supervision. The second part of the bill ensures a project that has already cleared review cannot be unwound by a future administration, of either party, absent a substantiated and immediate harm for which no other remedy exists, a principle likely voters endorse by a 62% to 21% margin.