From Watts Up With That?

By Duncan Wood

The U.S. has spent the past decade reshaping global energy markets. It became the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. It emerged as a leading LNG exporter. It expanded renewable generation at record pace.

This is what energy dominance looks like in practice: abundant supply, export strength, technological leadership, and resilience across fuels. But sustaining that dominance now depends on something less visible than drilling rigs or export terminals. It depends on permitting speed.

The U.S. does not lack energy resources. It does not lack capital. It does not lack technological innovation. What increasingly constrains deployment across hydrocarbons, electricity, critical minerals and infrastructure is the time it takes to move projects from proposal to approval.

Artificial intelligence offers a way to change that; not by weakening environmental standards, but by modernizing the process used to apply them.

Energy Dominance Requires Infrastructure Dominance

Getting things built is essential to achieving a modern and responsive energy system. Oil and gas production depends on pipelines, gathering systems, and export terminals. LNG exports depend on large-scale federal approvals. Offshore development requires environmental review and leasing coordination. Refining expansions require multi-layered regulatory signoff.

The electricity sector faces similar constraints. Rising power demand from advanced manufacturing, data centers, electrification, and industrial growth requires new generation and expanded transmission capacity. Yet transmission projects can take a decade or more from concept to completion.

Energy dominance is not simply about resource abundance. It is about the ability to build infrastructure at the speed of market demand. When permitting timelines stretch into multi-year review cycles, projects face higher financing costs, regulatory uncertainty, and litigation risk. Even economically viable projects can stall.

This Is Already Part of the Conversation

Federal officials have begun to acknowledge this reality. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has publicly discussed the potential for artificial intelligence to accelerate environmental reviews and improve permitting efficiency. Agencies are increasingly exploring digital modernization tools that can streamline documentation analysis and interagency coordination.

The objective is straightforward: maintain environmental safeguards while reducing procedural delay. That distinction matters. Faster permitting does not mean weaker oversight. It means applying oversight more efficiently. And that means boosting national competitiveness and economic strength.

Where AI Can Make a Real Difference

Permitting processes contain numerous stages that are data-heavy, repetitive, and administrative in nature, precisely where AI systems perform best.

• First, environmental document review. Major infrastructure projects generate thousands of pages of technical studies and cross-referenced analyses. AI tools can quickly identify inconsistencies, verify citations, flag missing mitigation measures, and ensure compliance with statutory requirements. This reduces revision cycles and strengthens the administrative record, lowering litigation vulnerability.
• Second, interagency coordination. Energy projects frequently involve Interior, Energy, EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, state regulators, and local authorities. AI-enabled tracking systems can monitor deadlines, route technical questions to subject-matter experts, and identify overlapping requirements early in the process. That replaces sequential bottlenecks with parallel visibility.
• Third, public comment processing. Large LNG terminals, pipelines, or generation facilities often receive thousands of public comments. AI can cluster themes, categorize issues, and map concerns directly to sections of environmental reviews within hours rather than months. Agencies can then focus on substantive engagement rather than manual sorting.
• Fourth, spatial and grid modeling. For the electricity sector, AI-driven geospatial tools can rapidly evaluate transmission routes, generation siting options, reliability impacts, and environmental constraints at early stages, reducing costly redesign later.

The Electricity Challenge

Electricity demand in the U.S. is rising again after years of relative stagnation. AI computing facilities, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced industrial processes, and electrification are all increasing load. In fact, most of the focus on the link between AI and energy has focused on that rapidly rising demand curve.

Meeting that demand requires not only generation across natural gas, nuclear, renewables, and emerging technologies, but also expanded transmission capacity. Yet transmission remains one of the slowest-moving parts of the energy system.

If permitting timelines for transmission projects can be shortened, even modestly, the benefits cascade through the system: improved reliability, reduced congestion costs, faster integration of new generation, and stronger economic growth. Energy dominance in the next decade will be measured not only in barrels and cubic feet, but in megawatts delivered and electrons moved efficiently across regions.

A Productivity Reform, Not a Policy Shift

Using AI in permitting should be understood as a productivity and efficiency reform inside government. It is about reducing paperwork redundancy, improving document quality, accelerating coordination, and strengthening transparency: human judgment remains central; environmental protections remain intact; public participation remains essential.

But if the U.S. can responsibly reduce permitting timelines from years to months in key stages it would lower project costs, increase investment predictability, and accelerate infrastructure deployment across the hydrocarbons and electricity sectors alike. That directly supports the goal of sustained energy dominance: abundant production, reliable power supply, export strength, and industrial competitiveness.

The Strategic Opportunity

America currently leads the world in artificial intelligence innovation. Applying that innovation to modernize its own regulatory infrastructure is both logical and overdue. If the U.S. can align its permitting systems with its technological capabilities, it can reinforce its position as the world’s leading energy power, not by cutting corners, but by cutting unnecessary delay.

And in today’s energy landscape, speed is strength.

Duncan Wood, PhD North America Fellow, Wilson Center & CEO, Hurst International Consulting.

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.