Barriers to Energy Supply Are Everywhere—Let’s Get Serious about Permitting Reform

Travis Fisher and Josh Loucks

Just north of Boston in Everett, Massachusetts sits the poster child for irrational energy permitting in the United States. The Everett Marine Terminal is a facility that connects imported liquefied natural gas (LNG)—often from Trinidad, more than 2,200 miles away—to natural gas delivery networks in New England. This is an absurd outcome for at least three reasons:

1. New England demands natural gas, which generated 55 percent of the electricity...