ICYMI: Business Roundtable CEOs Press for Permitting Reform at Senator McCormick’s Energy and Innovation Summit

Last week, Bechtel CEO Brendan Bechtel, Chair of the Business Roundtable Smart Regulation Committee, joined Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) and President Trump at Carnegie Mellon University for the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. The event brought together Administration officials, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, along with Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) and industry leaders. Discussions focused on the urgent need for permitting reform, expanded energy infrastructure and AI investment.

 Bechtel on the urgent need for permitting reform:

• “The thing that the Business Roundtable is really focused on gearing up for in the 4th quarter of this year is helping push for bipartisan durable permit reform. … [T]his is a huge opportunity for this nation. It is the single biggest thing that could help enable this AI and energy infrastructure build out. We’ve been hearing the words ‘build, build, build,’ ‘build, baby, build.’ That’s great, but it takes longer today to permit and develop an AI data center, or the energy that will power it, than it does to actually build it.”
• “The single biggest thing that will unlock our economic opportunity in the nation — including everything related to and really being driven by AI and energy infrastructure — is permit reform. And this moment is right now, it’s when we come back from the August recess and it’s before the end of the year, that is the political moment. If it doesn't happen, then it's not going to happen for another generation.”

To learn more about Business Roundtable’s perspective on permitting reform, click here.