“PG&E, our utility in Northern California, has doubled its rates over the last decade while service has only gotten worse. Why? Well, because they haven't been able to actually build that transmission and that generation to lower prices for everybody. And that's all because it can take three to four times longer to plan and permit a project as it actually takes to build it. That's bonkers.”
Plain English with Derek Thompson · US Politics · October 2026
Derek Thompson asked Harder to explain why permitting reform matters, as a large bipartisan permitting bill moves forward. Harder uses his own utility's rising rates to argue that slow approvals are why energy infrastructure doesn't get built.
Transcript
…to build a new accessory dwelling unit on your property, you can do that with the same mortgage considerations that we give for any other property. That can do a lot to build the housing that we need without actually going the direction that you were suggesting and diluting that economic signal.
…was one of the largest housing bills in housing laws in decades. Before we talk about what's in the bill, out of respect for an audience that I think might not be like doubled over in enthusiasm for the word permitting, what is the problem that we're trying to solve here and why is it so important?
It's trying to make sure that what people want out of their government is actually delivered. If you have a pothole in front of your house that needs to get built, you voted for the city council member who said they were going to build it and it doesn't get built for 15 years. Think about the cynicism and the frustration, let alone all the broken cars that that pothole creates. And that's the situation that we see for roads, for bridges, and of course, especially for energy all across America. PGE, our utility in Northern California, has doubled its rates over the last decade while service has only gotten worse. Why? Well, because they haven't been able to actually build that transmission and that generation to lower prices for everybody. And that's all because it can take three to four times longer to plan and permit a project as it actually takes to build it. That's bonkers.
Because this is a bipartisan bill, there's parts of this law that are going to be most appealing to Democrats and parts of this law that are going to be more appealing to Republicans. The bill would make it easier to approve long power lines, transmission lines, which are critical to move electrons…
I think on a level playing field, clean energy will win. And that's largely the bet that I'm making and many other folks are making trying to push this bill forward. 85% of what's called the interconnection queue, which is essentially energy projects waiting to move through and get connected to our…
How does this bill deal with data centers since an enormous share of the projected increase in electricity is coming from demand for artificial intelligence?
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