The One Thing That Is Hurting Renewable Energy Projects More Than Anything.

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: So I think this is a topic that's really going to surprise a lot of people. This is something I've been doing a ton of reading and research on. And the things that I've discovered through this process have been somewhat shocking to me. And the truth is the majority of the infrastructure that is facing environmental litigation is the very infrastructure that America needs to produce and deliver cleaner energy. What am I saying? I'm saying the majority of environmental litigation against new energy infrastructure and transmission lines and anything energy related is against clean and renewable energy. A lawsuit filed in the name of protecting the environment sometimes ends up increasing carbon emissions into the environment, sometimes keeps fossil fuel generation running much longer than it would have, sometimes raises your electric bill significantly, creating billions of dollars in additional climate change as well. So when you actually follow all those costs downstream, the numbers are just mind blowing. We're talking about climate activists opposing climate friendly projects. Stanford researchers examined 355 of America's largest energy and transportation infrastructure projects. Among the projects that required a full environmental impact study or a statement. About 30% of them. Experienced pre development litigation. 90% of those lawsuits included an environmental claim. But look at the projects that are getting sued. 34% of transmission projects. Nearly 40% of wind projects. And two-thirds of solar projects in this Stanford sample faced litigation. Just think about that contradiction. Just think about that contradiction. We're spending hundreds of billions of dollars in an attempt to transition the country towards cleaner energy. The projects necessary to accomplish that transition are spending years and years and years and years fighting in court. Whether they're environmentally acceptable. And the cost of the lawsuits themselves is the part that really shocks you. Because we are all paying for this. This shows up every day and pulls money out of our wallets. The delay is the expensive part. The reason I started studying this is I was researching how important permitting reform is. And we know the current legislation is out there. This video isn't really talking about that. I'm talking about the fact that it seems like we're cutting off our nose to spite our face. Resources for the future recently modeled what happens when America takes longer to build infrastructure, particularly transmission, power generation. A transmission project today, you're looking at roughly 10 years. 10 years. A generation project that we could do in two years, 20 years ago now takes five. Because of the litigation, because of the lawyers, because of the lawsuits. So what happens while we're waiting? Electricity doesn't stop flowing. But, you know, our needs don't stop being needs. The grid simply has to manage with what it can and what is available. And this means a lot of older, dirtier plants stay online. Cheaper new generation isn't getting to customers. Transmission lines are congested because it takes 10 years to do a single project. And we have thousands to do. Natural gas and coal generation run a lot longer and a lot more. And consumers, you and I, we pay the difference. RFF modeled transmission delays, and they discovered that increased electricity and natural gas costs to consumers from these delays, this is just one tiny little thing, $22 billion a year. Generation delays, another $28 billion a year. That's $50 billion a year in higher energy costs. But trust me, we're not done. There's a lot more cost. This does get more interesting. What about the climate cost? I mean, the only thing we talked about is a small slice of the economic side. So what happens to pollution when clean generation and transmission needed takes years longer than it should? That's years more of pollution happening that would be displaced. In RFF's central case, transmission delays increased power sector greenhouse gas emissions by 10%. 10%. Generation delays increased them by another 7%. [00:07:12] Speaker ?: Transmission delay. [00:07:14] Speaker 1: Transmission delay. And another $22 billion a year. Plus another $9 billion a year in health damages. $9 billion a year in health damages. [00:07:32] Speaker ?: $9 billion a year in health damages. [00:07:32] Speaker 1: Not from total pollution. From the delay of what we should have replaced already because what's held up in litigation. And this is just the transmission part. Generation delay, $17 billion. And another $7 billion in health damages. That's a total $16 billion in health damages. Put all that together. $39 billion a year in modeled climate damages. $16 billion more in additional health damages. $50 billion in higher electricity and natural gas costs. Over $100 billion a year in costs to the consumer. And environmental consequences in those delay scenarios. $100 billion a year. Now, just to clarify, it is not environmental lawsuits that cause 100% of the over $100 billion. There are other things that delay interconnection queues. The slow permitting outside of the litigation. Sometimes even financing problems or supply chains. So not all of those losses and delays are attributed to lawsuits. But the majority of them are. And that's why how the things we litigate in this country matter. Stanford found litigation, environmental litigation, incurring in 31% of transmission projects, 38% of wind, two-thirds of solar. Litigation isn't some theoretical possibility sitting out there in the future somewhere. We're eating up with it. And it's destroying whatever clean energy transition we have here. It's destroying it. It's present in a substantial share of categories in major projects. Now, take this out over the last 30 years. If delay at the scale that we're talking about, when you go back 30 years, you're talking about $1.5 trillion. And that's not considering the fact that this problem is going to get significantly worse. And the stakes are getting bigger. And that is because it's rapidly getting worse. The Department of Energy says inadequate transmission, delivering electricity to your home is what I mean when I say transmission. Increases wholesale electricity prices significantly. And the congestion cost of that was $12 billion in 2024. This is in addition to the $100 billion already stated. There's another $12 billion. And the Department of Energy expects these costs to rise significantly as electricity demand grows. And all the things we need to do to meet that demand sit in courtrooms. And what is going to cause our demand to grow? Obviously, data centers and AI, but also manufacturing, EVs, new factories, just simple population growth. Every new person born in this country is a consumer of energy. Every new person requires the grid to give us a little bit more juice. So delaying new transmission lines until 10 years from now will be unbelievably more expensive in the future. Even though we're delaying it today. And of course, the climate cost grows as well. Think about the absurdity of this whole situation. We can delay a power line project because we're concerned about its environmental impact. When the delay means renewable electricity isn't reaching the grid. And that only means more fossil fuel generation, more carbon emissions, more air pollution, higher electricity prices, more climate change. And eventually, we will get around to building the transmission line anyway. We just spent years paying for the fight against it. Now, of course, that doesn't mean not at all saying environmental review should disappear. That's not at all what I'm saying. And I'm certainly not saying local towns, communities, counties shouldn't have a voice. Obviously, you know, companies shouldn't be allowed to bulldoze environmentally sensitive areas without consequences. Because, you know, environmental protections absolutely serve a legitimate purpose. But there's a difference between environmental protection and a system in which the environmental process itself prevents environmentally beneficial things from being built on a reasonable timetable. We have created this environmental industry, this environmental litigation industry. It's such a huge money-making thing now. It's like it's not about the environment anymore. And the conversation about that is one that this country desperately needs to have. Because for 30 years, we've tended to measure the cost of environmental litigation by looking at the courthouse and attorney's fees and consultants, environmental studies, court costs. You're looking at the wrong end of the equation. The real cost of that is on your electric bill every month. When you have a very sharp cold spell in December and suddenly that costs you an extra $500. Or when it's a hot spell in August. It shows up on your bill. It shows up on the cost of what you're buying that was built in a factory that had to pay more for electricity. And that same product had to be put in a store that you went to and purchased from that is paying more for electricity. It shows up in billions of dollars of inflation daily around the United States. And it also shows up in more pollution, ironically and incredibly. It's going to show up as climate damage caused by delaying the very clean energy projects that these environmental lawyers are supposed to be protecting us from. That's the paradox. Of course, we need environmental protection. But if protecting the environment prevents us from protecting the environment, what are we doing? At some point, the delay itself is the environmental cost. That's why we need permitting reform. More than ever. Because the speed at which the demand for electricity is growing, we're not going to be able to keep up with the way we do business right now. It's not a thing. Folks, the American Power Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, anywhere you can download. The podcast, you can watch it on YouTube, at AmericanPowerPod is the handle. Thank you guys so much for your support. And I hope you guys have a great week. [00:17:17] Speaker ?: Thanks.