API Releases Policy Roadmap to Fix America’s Broken Permitting System

WASHINGTON, September 9, 2025 – The American Petroleum Institute (API) today released a policy roadmap urging Congress to modernize the nation’s outdated permitting system and ensure access to affordable, reliable energy at a time of rising demand and soaring electricity costs. The plan outlines concrete steps for durable, comprehensive solutions that cut red tape, sets clear deadlines and provides legal certainty.

“American energy is ready to go, but Washington’s broken permitting system is standing in the way,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said. “As energy demand rises, critical infrastructure to deliver it is stuck behind red tape. It’s time for Congress to act on durable reforms that ensure access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy – because when America builds, America wins.”

API’s permitting reform plan outlines critical reform areas, including:

Set Deadlines, Enforce Them

Enforce statutory timelines under the Clean Water Act
Eliminate last-minute information roadblocks
Improve permitting timelines on federal lands and waters
Establish a modern, uniform process for cross-border energy projects

Stop Lawsuits, Start Building

Set clear timelines for legal challenges
Fix instead of canceling permits
Provide long-term certainty through nationwide permits
Keep projects moving once reviews are complete

Targeted Reviews, Swift Decisions

Clarify limitations on actions subject to NEPA
Limit reviews to direct project impacts
Direct agencies to stay within their authority
Prohibit use of the social cost of carbon in reviews

API recently launched a TV and digital ad campaign underscoring the bipartisan consensus on the need for permitting reform and urging Congress to act. Watch the ad on YouTube here.

Visit www.permittingreformnow.org to learn more.

API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports nearly 11 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our approximately 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 800 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.

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