A large amount of wind and solar spending approved by Congress last year faces the prospect of getting stuck for years in the permitting process unless the government streamlines the regulations, according to a recent report by the Brookings Institution.
“Permitting of renewable energy generation and electric transmission projects in the United States is multi-layered and often extremely long,” says the February report.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed last summer by President Joe Biden promises hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits, loans, and grants for moving the country toward “clean energy.” On one hand, it subsidizes the buildup of wind and solar power generation, and on the other it subsidizes consumers’ ditching oil and gas to buy electric cars and heat pumps….