Permitting Reform Or Death

Casey Handmer · 10 Nov 2023

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The binding constraint on building anything in America is permitting and litigation, not money.

Their wordsYet solar development is hopelessly snarled by dozens of different development regulations which begin with the assumption that it will permanently and severely harm the environment unless proven otherwise, at exhaustive length.

Also said by John H. Cochrane, Brian Potter

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
There is almost no lower-impact use of low-value land than covering it with solar panels.

Their wordsIn summary, it is hard to imagine a lower impact use of low-value land than solar development.
Our reading
The binding constraint on building anything in America is permitting and litigation, not money.
Mental modelBottlenecks

Their wordsYet solar development is hopelessly snarled by dozens of different development regulations which begin with the assumption that it will permanently and severely harm the environment unless proven otherwise, at exhaustive length.
Our reading
Environmental permitting now causes more environmental harm than it prevents, because what it delays is the clean thing replacing the dirty one.

Their wordsThe primary driver of increased impact, longer time scales before displacement, and catastrophically high levels of avoidable pollution is environmental protection regulations.
Our reading
Delay in permitting clean energy kills more Americans every year than the September 11 attacks did.

Their wordsThe terrorist attacks on 9/11 killed 2996 people in a day of singular horror. Our ongoing indifference to regulatory inefficiency, considering only the area of green energy development, kills more people every year – more than 10 people per day, and that’s only within the US.

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