American families have been paying higher energy prices in the wake of the war in Iran, but one government agency is looking to fast-track relief measures that will ultimately lead to lower prices.
The relief comes from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which voted unanimously, 5-0, to streamline the bureaucracy that has been bottlenecking natural gas infrastructure for years and hamstringing common-sense energy projects with byzantine rules. Most Americans have never heard of FERC, but the commission has an outsized impact on your utility bills.
Natural gas projects, such as pipelines, have been repeatedly blocked for years by mountains of red tape, making even simple upgrades to existing infrastructure virtually impossible. The result is less natural gas supplied to the market, which means higher prices.
When natural gas is more expensive, customers not only pay more to heat their homes, but to cool them as well, because gas supplies more than 40% of electricity in America. With power needs already skyrocketing from growth in AI data centers, electric cars, and manufacturing facilities, supply isn’t keeping up with demand.
The problem largely stems from the antiquated rules and price thresholds in FERC’s blanket certificate program—the framework that determines which pipeline projects need full case-by-case federal review, and which can proceed through a streamlined process. The program’s ossified metrics mean virtually nothing gets the streamlined treatment.
As long as routine infrastructure—a compressor upgrade here, a mainline improvement there—is under a certain dollar threshold, it’s approved for the blanket certificate program without the need for a costly, time-consuming full certificate proceeding. But those dollar thresholds remain frozen near 2006 levels.
Meanwhile, by FERC’s own analysis, pipeline construction costs rose nearly 257 percent between 2006 and 2024, and have climbed further since. In other words, inflation alone quietly converted routine maintenance into “major projects” requiring the full bureaucratic treatment, with its delays and costs.
A compressor station upgrade that would have sailed through a streamlined review in 2006 now sits in a federal queue for months, not because it became more dangerous, polluting, or controversial, but because the prices of steel, labor, and concrete have gone up. That is regulation by accident, not intent—and consumers have been paying for it.
FERC, led by its chairman, Laura Swett, has proposed more than doubling the dollar thresholds to better reflect what these routine, uncontentious projects truly cost. It’d also eliminate cost limits entirely for expansions at existing compressor station sites, so long as the work stays within the utility’s fenceline.
Just adding horsepower to a pumping station that has already been reviewed, built, and operated safely for years should be straightforward. The proposal also extends the in-service deadline for blanket projects from one year to two, giving developers a realistic runway instead of an artificial cliff that keeps projects from ever breaking ground.
These changes matter because regulatory delays are a hidden tax paid by the American people, landing hardest on those least able to pay. Every month—or year—that a routine upgrade languishes in bureaucratic review is more time for demand to outpace supply and drive up prices.
Gas and electric bills alike have risen because—ironically—the world's largest producer of natural gas since 2011 has been hobbled by its own paperwork.
The damage goes beyond utilities, because energy impacts the cost of everything. Higher energy prices ripple through groceries, rent, and anything that's manufactured or transported. Permitting delay looks an awful lot like inflation.
Fortunately, returning to a streamlined approval process helps solve the problem by eliminating this hidden tax. Finalizing these reforms is an economic necessity, especially given rising energy demand in the years ahead.
This also delivers on President Trump's agenda to expedite permitting, as per the "Unleashing American Energy" executive order he signed on his first day back in office. The unanimous vote from a commission that's often divided on policy illustrates the overwhelming case for this commonsense reform.
FERC's decision is the opening salvo, not the last word, in this fight. The next step will be a formally proposed rule, and the public can comment for 60 days thereafter. Opponents should be heard, then outvoted, so that American families and businesses come before special interest groups. We can't afford artificially high energy bills anymore.
E.J. Antoni, Ph.D., is chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity.