Get America Building: Senator Alan Armstrong on Energy Infrastructure and Permitting Reform

What will it take to build the energy infrastructure America needs to stay competitive?  

Power demand is outpacing supply throughout the U.S. Competitive power suppliers have billions in private capital ready to invest and tens of gigawatts of new generation in the development pipeline. But turning those investments into operating power plants requires a policy and regulatory environment that provides greater certainty and allows projects to move forward. 

In this episode of Energy Solutions, EPSA President and CEO Todd Snitchler sits down with Senator Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma to discuss why permitting reform is one of Washington’s most consequential energy issues – and has become the defining priority of his time in the U.S. Senate. 

Before joining the Senate, Senator Armstrong spent nearly four decades at Williams, including almost 15 years as CEO. He reflects on his front-row seat to the shale gas revolution, how abundant and affordable energy helped strengthen the U.S. economy, and what his experience developing major infrastructure taught him about the barriers to building in America. 

The conversation explores how permitting delays, litigation, and regulatory uncertainty can hold up investment in pipelines, transmission, power generation, and other critical energy infrastructure.  Armstrong discusses his push to modernize the federal permitting process, the prospects for bipartisan action in Congress, and why he believes the window to get meaningful reform done is now. 

With electricity demand accelerating and affordability and reliability increasingly in focus, America needs massive private investment in new energy infrastructure. The capital is available. The projects are being developed. The question is: Can America get them built? 

Topics include: 

• Why permitting reform is essential to building critical infrastructure, 
• The shale gas revolution and America's energy advantage,  
• How innovation and competition made natural gas more affordable,  
• FERC's role in pipeline development,  
• Modernizing NEPA and improving project certainty,  
• Building bipartisan support for permitting reform,  
• Why America's future depends on its ability to build. 

Host: Todd Snitchler, President and CEO, EPSA 

Guest: Senator Alan Armstrong, U.S. Senator from Oklahoma 

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