Ten Years from Now: Which Energy Future Did We Choose?

Previously published by the Grand Junction Sentinel.

Imagine it’s 2036. The Trump presidency is long over. So are the Biden years. The political battles of the 2020s have faded into the background. What remains is the physical reality of the energy system we built – or failed to build.

Looking back, the question won’t be whether leaders believed in climate change or favored one technology over another. It will be simpler and more consequential. Did the country meet a historic surge in electricity demand with enough speed and foresight to sustain economic growth and national security? Or did our government stumble as factions prioritized their own power and preferences rather than America’s energy needs?

Today we’re faced with daunting energy challenges: exploding electricity demand from AI, data centers, electrification, and re-industrialization; strained supply chains for everything from critical minerals to electrical transformers to gas turbines. Interest rates are up. So are construction costs.

President Trump wants big wins for America and he’s meeting the moment with big bets on fossil fuels, nuclear power, and even fusion. But he’s also making big moves against wind and solar power, pulling permits mid-construction and weaponizing executive authority against disfavored technologies. In a moment when American dominance hinges on “all of the above” energy abundance, when developers and investors are seeking certainty and predictability, the president is playing Whack-A-Mole with U.S. energy projects.

Presidential interference isn’t new. Biden cancelled pipelines and paused permits for LNG terminals. Trump is cancelling wind and solar. What will the next president go after? We can’t win anything that depends on energy if presidents can cancel whatever projects they don’t like.

We need to introduce certainty back into the system. The irony is that the industries Trump favors – oil, gas, nuclear, advanced manufacturing – want the same thing renewable energy developers want: a timely yes-no decision, clear rules, limits on litigation, and confidence that the government won’t change its mind midway through construction.

Congress has been working toward a deal to fix the log jams in our permitting system.  It isn’t easy, but members of both parties now agree it takes too long to build the infrastructure America needs. Uncertainty adds delay, risk, and cost. Those costs ultimately show up in higher utility bills, taxes, and consumer prices across the economy.

For years, Republicans have pointed to excessive litigation from environmental groups as a key driver of project uncertainty. On December 18, the House of Representatives passed reforms that put limits around litigation after federal permits are approved. Some moderate Democrats supported those reforms, but only if paired with limits on executive authority to revoke legally approved permits, a principle known as permit certainty.

And that’s where progress broke down. Just before the final House vote, the permit certainty provision was weakened at the demand of an anti-wind faction. Senate leaders had been advancing their own bipartisan reform package, but President Trump escalated tensions during Christmas week by suspending leases on five major offshore wind projects. Senate Democrats responded by suspending negotiations on permitting reform.

What should have been a debate about modernizing a failing system became another contest over political control.

Congress is choosing the path to our future right now. By 2036, we could see nuclear and geothermal deploying at scale; solar, wind and batteries sharing a balanced grid with dispatchable resources; modern transmission delivering reliable power nationwide; U.S. oil and gas workers producing needed fossil energy and leading the emerging geothermal industry. On this path, electricity prices and emissions are dropping, not by mandate but through fair market competition and efficient, predictable permitting rules.

Or a factional Congress could leave us stuck in the permitting rut. Projects approved, then cancelled. Courts clogged. Capital fleeing to safer jurisdictions. Data centers stalled. Power prices rising. Infrastructure lagging demand. Congress unable to modernize permitting because trust has collapsed.

Ten years from now, we won’t be arguing about Trump’s rhetoric or Biden’s intentions. We’ll be living with the infrastructure decisions locked in today. Congress should act now to modernize permitting rules for all types of energy infrastructure, and restore the certainty needed to get American projects built.

Kathy Fackler is a clean energy advocate from Durango, Colorado. She has been lobbying Congress for comprehensive bipartisan permitting reform as a private citizen since 2023.