The Free State Foundation has written many times about how difficulty obtaining necessary government permits and rights-of-way adds unwarranted costs and\or delays to deploying broadband. Although most permitting problems are at the state and local levels, the federal government also requires costly studies for permission to use federal property. The two principal statutes are the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). On Tuesday another voice weighed in. “The Permitting Window is Closing,” by Tahra Hoops of The Rebuild urges Democrats to make NHPA reform a priority and negotiate a bipartisan agreement. However, because of the problems associated with future energy supplies, the call for support should be directed to all sides.
NHPA is one of two significant federal statutes that govern activity on federal lands. Although good data on costs and delays does not exist, a paper from earlier this year estimated that, absent reform, the cost of both statutes for just outdoor wireless facilities would be $2.2 billion over the next decade. Overall economic harm would total $7.5 billion. This is equal to 18 percent of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. The study found that: “the current permitting process adds unnecessary costs for wireless infrastructure and service providers and delays the deployment of higher-capacity networks and innovative services in the United States.”
NHPA requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of federal undertakings on historic property. Section 106 requires agencies to identify historical properties that may be affected by a proposed undertaking and assess whether the action would affect those properties. Broadband deployments are considered undertakings and therefore require a more detailed study.
Ms. Hoop’s analysis looks at NHPA primarily through its effect on electricity markets. A combination of growing demand and supply constraints has caused energy prices to rise sharply over the last few years. Ms. Hoops points to data from the Energy Information Administration showing that the cost of electricity rose 42 percent over the last five years. On average, households spent $110 more in 2025 than in 2024. This causes a slew of problems. One is that the backlog in rights-of-way approvals prevents a great deal of clean energy from connecting to the electric grid. To make things worse, the reduction in supply causes power plants to ramp up their use of coal and oil.
Second, U.S. policy prioritizes goals that, if pursued, will require tremendous amounts of new electricity. A key aspect of U.S. climate policy is the electrification of everything from vehicles and air conditioning to energy storage. Even if the electricity to power these machines is coal, electrification will still require large increases in supply. Then there is artificial intelligence (AI), which requires incredible amounts of electricity to power data farms and run the information networks needed to connect AI to the rest of the economy. Without a modern sophisticated collection of networks, including connections to the power grid, AI will not amount to much. Under current policy, AI capacity and needs are forecast to rise rapidly, so any policy that makes it easier to build and connect power plants on federal lands helps advance AI.
Permitting reform can be accomplished. Utah’s State Historic Preservation Office digitized decades of paper records into a GIS system in 2017. Today 98 percent of its reviews clear within seven days, saving the state roughly $250,000 per year. The Bipartisan Policy Center recently published a paper on possible permitting reforms for the NHPA. Commonly mentioned changes include tighter time deadlines. reducing the number of properties covered by the Act, limits on judicial review, and digitizing records.
NHPA reform will have lots of benefits. The environmental ones are not always clear but as Ms. Hoops says: “[a] technology-neutral permitting overhaul is a net-clean policy by simple arithmetic. Speeding up everything speeds up clean energy most, because clean energy is what’s waiting in line.”
A reduction in federal permitting time and costs will speed up deployment projects and reduce the cost of spreading broadband to all parts of the country. Finally, shortening the permitting process will reduce the cost and time associated with finding new sources of electricity and connecting them to the grid. That has a tremendous effect on the growth of AI. As stated before, this is one of the key constraints to the buildout of the new information networks needed to convey, compute, and control the massive amounts of data needed to support AI.
Congress is currently considering a number of reform bills including the Historic Preservation Fund Reauthorization Act (H.R 3416). Last session a bipartisan bill passed committee but members were unable to seal the deal. The environmental, power, and scientific benefits remain great. Let’s hope they do this year.
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