Pompeo, Yellen and others warn in letter that U.S. risks losing tech race to China
By Benoît Morenne
Former officials from the Trump, Biden, Obama and other past administrations are warning that the U.S. is at risk of losing a technological and industrial race with China -- unless it adopts a sweeping energy-permitting bill.
The U.S. isn't building energy infrastructure fast enough to remain globally competitive, the officials said in a letter to be sent Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.)
Among others who signed the letter are former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served in the first Trump administration; former Biden-era Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; and Stephen Miran, former Federal Reserve governor who was appointed by President Trump.
China has made energy infrastructure central to its industrial strategy. By contrast, the U.S. faces lengthy delays in building the transmission lines and energy components needed to power the development of semiconductors, critical minerals and artificial intelligence, the officials argue. The letter was organized by Arnab Datta, director of policy implementation at the Institute for Progress, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
"While the United States retains enormous advantages in technology, capital markets, attracting the world's talent, entrepreneurship, and natural resources, those advantages matter less if a company cannot build a factory quickly enough to reach market or if the infrastructure required to power it takes five, ten, or fifteen years to plan and complete," the letter said.
Said Miran in an interview: "If we don't have abundant cheap energy it's just too expensive to manufacture here, and we'd be ceding a massive advantage to our competitors and adversaries" including China.
The Senate last month announced legislation to speed up the permitting process that has long drawn complaints from energy developers. It proposes an overhaul of environmental rules, introduces changes aimed at strengthening the electric grid and mandates that data centers pay for all of their associated transmission costs.
Trade groups for the oil-and-gas and renewable-energy industries have praised the bill, saying it would boost energy projects. Meg O'Neill, the chief executive of British oil company BP, which operates in the U.S., said the bill would help unlock the full potential of American energy and strengthen domestic energy security.
Oil-and-gas companies have grappled with long delays securing the permits to erect new pipelines to ship their products to markets, along with yearslong lawsuits from environmental groups. They threw their support behind Trump in part in the hope that a GOP-led Congress would help them cut through the red tape. And those pushing renewable-energy ventures -- developing wind and solar projects -- have wrestled with mounting opposition to projects.
The midterm election in November is teeing up a fight over the future of the bill. The election map is shifting in favor of Democrats, and some lawmakers want to delay any legislation until a new Congress is in session. Rep. Jared Huffman (D., Calif.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said after the bill was introduced that "folding our hand now or in the lame duck makes no sense when we can keep working on this."
Meanwhile, a coalition of 185 community, labor, climate and environmental-justice organizations last week urged congressional leaders to oppose the bill, saying it would gut environmental safeguards and provide a golden ticket to huge AI data centers and tech billionaires.
"We can't let this trillion-dollar industry keep ravaging neighborhoods and making Americans pay more for their electricity," said Camden Weber, senior climate and energy policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Some of the former officials pushing for a swift adoption of the bill said it was good for climate change because it supports clean-energy projects. Jason Furman, who served as Obama's chief economist from 2013 to 2017, said the U.S. has long dealt with issues such as the need to send power from renewable-energy sites in the Midwest to the places that need them in the East.
"We wanted to throw a lot of money at the problem, and as we researched it, we realized that the problem was permitting, not money," he said in an interview.
China has built more high-voltage transmission in the past 15 years than the entirety of U.S. history, the letter notes.
Jake Sullivan, who served as Biden's national security adviser and is one of the signatories to the letter, said China would keep building its clean-energy infrastructure and advanced industrial capacity -- whether or not Congress passes the energy bill.
"They're not waiting around," he said. "In the meantime, if Congress fails to pass permitting reform this year, America's investments in the industries of the future will remain mired in delays, litigation, and uncertainty."