Note: This letter to the editor appeared in the Wall Street Journal on September 30th, 2022 in response to the Journal’s September 26, 2022 op-ed titled “Both Parties Should Support My Permitting-Reform Bill,”

Sen. Joe Manchin’s bill that ostensibly would have speeded up the permitting process for conventional energy projects (“Both Parties Should Support My Permitting-Reform Bill,” op-ed, Sept. 26) would have done no such thing. The bill’s failure, however, provides an opportunity to reform the litigation process—the real source of delays and large cost increases.

Litigation reform would reduce the environmental damage caused by the suppression of new capital investment to replace older facilities. It would put an end to the “completeness” requirement for agency reviews before permits are granted, a source of endless litigation and delay, focusing on the major environmental impacts rather than hundreds of minor ones that can be predicted on net to cancel out. Such reform would allow the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in West Virginia—evidently Mr. Manchin’s only real concern—while creating the same economic benefits for other projects equally important.

Litigation reform might also reverse the growth of the central planning that characterizes the investment process for energy resources and related facilities. This is particularly the case for the huge policy favoritism toward wind and solar power, the massive inefficiencies of which require ever-expanding government subventions as a means of avoiding blackouts and other adverse effects.

Read the full letter to the editor on The Wall Street Journal.