09/17/2026
Federal Permitting System is Failing Consumers, Workers, and the Minority Businesses Community
Last week, Next American Era issued a new independently commissioned research report press release titled “Federal Permitting System is Failing Consumers, Workers, and the Minority Business Community – Congress Must Act Now.” The California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is very supportive of the need for greater reform of the permitting system in the state as it continues to bog down the growth of the state and in particular hits hardest on small and medium sized Latino businesses, who cannot afford the enormous costs and red-tape that is revealed in this report.
Its findings reinforce the Chamber's statewide commitment to pro-growth, pro-business policy that delivering real results for California families and workers. Authored by the nonpartisan Responsible Business Initiative, the research finds that grid congestion cost more than $12 billion in 2024 alone, that roughly 8,200 projects are stuck in interconnection queues with a median wait of more than five years, and that more than 864,000 construction workers whose livelihoods depend on energy projects bear the brunt of these delays.
As Cheri Bustos, President of Next American Era and former U.S. Congresswoman, put it, the cost of inaction falls on “the family that can't afford their energy bill, the construction worker waiting on a halted project to get started, and the community still waiting on the jobs” that stalled infrastructure would have brought.
The report’s central takeaway is one CHCC believes policymakers on both sides of the aisle should heed: the worsening grid congestion, paired with lengthy federal review timelines, showcases that “delay is not ideologically neutral” and impacts consumers, workers and local communities. It slows clean and conventional energy projects alike, and it is
Californians and Americans everywhere who pay the price. With several bipartisan permitting bills already before Congress, CHCC joins NAE in urging lawmakers to seize this narrowing legislative window and deliver the modernization our energy infrastructure urgently needs.
Read More: https://nextamericanera.org/news-and-insights/cost-of-delay