Expanding clean energy to help reduce energy costs while protecting our natural resources is a win-win for the Alabama business community as well as residents. That’s why we need thoughtful, market-based solutions to address our environmental and energy challenges. Alabama’s congressional delegation—including Senator Katie Britt—should continue to champion smart, conservative policies in Washington that help us achieve these goals back home.
Senator Britt should help support an all-of-the-above approach to energy that focuses on improving and upgrading our energy infrastructure while responsibly developing all the energy resources the United States has to offer. Importantly, that must also include reforming the federal permitting process required in order to move new energy and infrastructure projects forward in a timely manner.
Unfortunately, the permitting and government review process for energy infrastructure projects has become overly burdensome and abysmally slow, often taking years (sometimes more than a decade) to complete. All that does is delay construction of critical energy projects that could help us make better use of our clean energy resources while creating jobs and spurring economic growth in Alabama communities.
In today’s business environment, it only makes sense to embrace a process that makes it easier to review, permit, and build clean energy projects—instead of making it more difficult by forcing projects to go through a convoluted and often duplicative permitting process. This is especially true for businesses like Hometown Lenders that work in the mortgage industry, which is facing serious challenges.
Senator Britt and the rest of Alabama’s elected officials in Congress should work to support and pass legislation that speeds up and streamlines government review of energy infrastructure projects to remove regulatory barriers, bring critical clean energy and infrastructure projects to life sooner, and allow American businesses to thrive.
Billy Taylor is the Founder and CEO of Hometown Lenders.
