ICYMI: Business Roundtable at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Permitting Summit 2026
Business Roundtable’s Matt Sonnesyn Reinforces How Comprehensive Permitting Reform Can Strengthen U.S. Competitiveness
February 12, 2026
Photo: Sonnesyn moderates a panel discussion between Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association; Marsden Hanna, Head of Energy and Sustainability Policy at Google; and Sasha Mackler, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Strategic Policy at ExxonMobil.
Last week, Matt Sonnesyn, Senior Vice President for Policy at Business Roundtable, moderated a panel, titled “Industry Insights on the Permitting Process,” at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Permitting Summit 2026: Building America’s Energy Infrastructure.
Sonnesyn underscored how outdated federal permitting processes are delaying critical infrastructure projects, constraining energy supply and undermining America’s global competitiveness. Here’s what he said about the importance of creating an efficient, predictable and durable federal permitting system:
Permitting reform is critical for U.S. competitiveness and energy security.
- “[Permitting] reform is imperative if we’re going to continue to compete globally.”
- “So, permitting as [it] exists today is preventing us from building the future as quickly as we ought to be able to. It’s slowing us down [from] trying to meet the new AI challenge and compete globally, and it’s preventing us from investing in energy the way we want to.”
Continued project delays carry significant economic costs.
- “When you think about the U.S. permitting process, there’s more than one and a half trillion dollars of projects stuck in the permitting queue today. That’s delaying GDP impact of more than $2.4 trillion because it takes the average dollar of investment four to five years to get through the federal permitting system. … so we’re really delaying a great deal of economic gain for our country with our current permitting process.”
Modernizing permitting supports affordability.
- “Permitting reform helps build power generation for data centers. To get that load onto the grid is actually what’s going to drive prices down. So, [it’s] critical for affordability for Americans.”
Opportunity for Bipartisanship.
- “In my more than 20 years of working on this issue, … I’ve never seen the business community coalesce around these priorities the way that we’re seeing right now. I was at a hearing last week [with] the Environment & Public Works Committee in the Senate. … It was amazing — and what it tells me is that the opportunity is now. We do have enough folks that care and that are working on this that we can come together. … We have a President who wants to build and who wants to leave a mark with a lot of beautiful new infrastructure in this country. This is the moment to do it, so I hope we’ll all join together to help make it happen.”
