Gas industry executives descended on Washington this week to sound alarm bells over the need for permitting reform to speed up infrastructure build-out, insisting the US could quickly fall behind in the global artificial intelligence race.

The warnings came as the National Petroleum Council (NPC) unveiled a list of recommendations on ways the Trump administration can make near-term permitting improvements while Congress works toward broader legislative reform.

“The winner of this AI race isn’t going to come down to who can get the chips. It’s not going to be about who can build the best apps. It’s going to come down to who can build power generation the fastest,” EQT CEO Toby Rice told the North American Gas Forum on Dec. 2.

Williams CEO Chad Zamarin likened today’s situation to the pre-World War II race to build the first atomic bomb. “This is our generation’s moment, our Manhattan Project,” he told the forum. “If we had to compete right now … just from a manufacturing and technology perspective, we would not be the world’s most dominant [AI] producer.”

During a separate NPC meeting on Dec. 3, TC Energy CEO Francis Poirier said gas and power infrastructure projects are key to meet surging energy demand, rising costs and rapid build-out of AI data centers.

“The current permitting process delays prevent the US from realizing those solutions in a timely manner. Even successful projects take far longer than they should,” Poirier said, referencing a recent TC Energy expansion project in the Pacific Northwest that took more than two years to obtain its permits.

“I think people are tired of us constantly saying it, but it really does depend on infrastructure,” to keep gas prices in check, Williams Executive Chairman and former CEO Alan Armstrong told the NPC meeting.

‘Demand Signals Are Screaming’

Rice told reporters after the NPC event that gas pipeline transportation fees have risen significantly on “purely political risk” rather than supply chain or inflation, and he attributed that to permitting delays. “With this political risk, we’re getting quotes of $2-$3” per million Btu, Rice said.

He added that a lack of storage capacity “is going to introduce a tremendous amount of volatility,” noting the stagnant pace of storage infrastructure growth over the past decade even as supply and demand have soared.

Rice, whose company is the second-largest US gas producer, told the North American Gas Forum that the US market will need 10 billion to 18 billion cubic feet per day of new gas production just to meet demand growth necessary to power AI data centers. But while the gas is there, the pipelines and power plants are not.

“We have the supply chain [and] the resources to make this work. But we need the purpose and the regulatory system that will allow market forces to work,” he said. “The demand signals are screaming for more energy.”

Because of regulatory and legal hurdles facing multibillion-dollar pipelines and power generation projects in the US, “We’ve basically taken a pause of getting infrastructure built for the last 10 years,” Rice argued. “We’ve got to catch up on all that and get this additional capacity built over the next few years.”

A day later, newly minted Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Laura Swett sought to allay the gas industry’s concerns, asserting that one of FERC’s primary goals under her leadership will be expediting approval of gas pipelines and LNG export projects.

‘Failing to Keep Up’

Meanwhile, the NPC recommendations run the gamut from a focus on modernizing and streamlining the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa), which would need congressional action, to actions that could be done at the executive level, such as holding FERC to a 90-day authorization deadline after the completion of environmental reviews.

“Between 2010 and 2022, natural gas demand rose by 49%, but pipeline (26% growth) and storage (2% growth) capacity grew far more slowly, creating bottlenecks that threaten economic growth, national security, and global competitiveness,” the report said. “The current permitting process — bogged down by lengthy reviews, litigation risks, and overlapping regulations — is failing to keep up, leading to higher costs, supply insecurity, and missed opportunities in the global energy and technology race.”

The NPC recommendations come as the House of Representatives just advanced a permitting reform bill focused on the Nepa elements, albeit with sparse Democratic support. During the NPC event, Poirier said he hopes to see a complete House draft by the end of this year, with the goal of passing a reconciliation bill early next year that could pass with a simple majority in both the House and Senate.