An energy permitting showdown: Two experts debate how fast is too fast

Note: This episode was recorded in late November 2025. To keep up with the (many) updates to EPA policymaking, permitting reform, and more that have happened since this conversation...might we suggest the Energy Central Daily Newsletter?

The clean energy transition is running into a critical constraint, and it’s not because of technology, capital, or ambition. Instead the bottleneck comes from how energy projects get approved.

Permitting has become one of the most consequential—and contested—issues in U.S. energy policy. Transmission lines, renewable generation, and other major infrastructure projects are facing longer timelines, greater uncertainty, and growing political friction. At the same time, demand for electricity is rising fast, and reliability and affordability are back at the center of public concern.

In this episode, host Kinsey Grant Baker plays moderator for a friendly but critical debate between two of the country’s leading energy law scholars, James Coleman of the University of Minnesota and David Adelman of the University of Texas. While both agree that permitting is a serious bottleneck, they bring distinct perspectives on why the system looks the way it does and how far reform should go. Drawing on years of research and policy engagement, Coleman and Adelman walk through how today’s permitting framework evolved, where the biggest procedural and political bottlenecks lie, and why recent reform efforts have produced mixed results.

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