Executive Director @ForFreeMarkets, Founder and ED @FightExtremism, former @StateDept @USUN. RTs not endorsements.
Joined February 2018
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1/5 In exploring how best to regulate AI, this @ColumbiaMag article actually highlights several good reasons for regulatory restraint. First, we still don't fully understand AI's risks and potential impacts.
Why @Columbia researchers say we can govern AI even as we’re still learning how it works. magazine.columbia.edu/articl…
4/5 Fourth, premature regulation would entrench today's dominant AI companies. Large firms can absorb compliance costs that smaller competitors cannot, potentially limiting innovation and competition.
5/5 None of this means AI should be exempt from oversight. But creating entirely new regulatory frameworks before we fully understand the technology, its risks, and the adequacy of existing protections may do more harm than good.
We should understand what needs regulating before deciding how to regulate it.
Debanking didn't start on Wall Street. It started in Washington.
Good discussion with @RealEJAntoni and the great Drew Steele on @FLVoiceNews.
🚨WHO'S REALLY TO BLAME FOR DEBANKING?: Chief Economist at the @Heritage Foundation reveals how the practice of DEBANKING came from Washington regulators
@RealEJAntoni: "[Congress needs] to formally BAN this kind of nonsense on the part of the regulatory state!"
China has built more high-voltage transmission in the past 15 years than the entirety of U.S. history. Meanwhile, America is still waiting years – sometimes decades – for federal permits to build the same infrastructure.
🎯Yellen, Kudlow and co. got it right.
NEWS: 19 FORMER ECONOMIC AND NATIONAL SECURITY LEADERS ENDORSE THE BIPARTISAN PERMITTING REFORM BILL
Today, a group of former Cabinet members and White House principals across seven Democratic and Republican administrations sent a letter calling on Congress to pass BAAJA. Here are the signatories:
Janet YELLEN, Michael R. POMPEO, Steven T. MNUCHIN, Leon E. PANETTA, Timothy F. GEITHNER, Henry M. PAULSON, Jr., Robert E. RUBIN, Stephen MIRAN, Jared BERNSTEIN, Tyler GOODSPEED, Jason FURMAN, Glenn HUBBARD, Laura D’Andrea TYSON, Michael J. BOSKIN, Jeffrey ZIENTS, Jake SULLIVAN, Brian DEESE, Larry KUDLOW, Allan B. HUBBARD
Key highlights from the letter:
1. “We are not building infrastructure fast enough to remain globally competitive… The median time for a new power plant to move from an interconnection request to commercial operation has more than doubled, from less than two years for projects built between 2000 and 2007 to more than four years for projects built between 2018 and 2024.
2. China has built more high-voltage transmission in the last fifteen years than the U.S. has built in all of its history... In 2024, China accounted for 31.5% of global knowledge- and technology-intensive manufacturing value added, compared with 20.7% for the United States.
3. Federally funded or permitted projects require NEPA review, but private projects often do not, creating a threat of failure precisely where the government is trying to be proactive, strategic, and engaged.
4. A project that spends years awaiting approval must continue carrying development and financing costs while remaining exposed to rising input costs. The IEA reports that prices for utility-scale transformers increased 26% in 2024, while lead times for some transformers have stretched as long as six years.
5. Mining projects also face tremendous uncertainty: a 2026 study by researchers at the Colorado School of Mines found that permitting for modern mining projects takes an average of 5.5 years, rising to 8.9 years for contested projects. The U.S. currently has the second-longest mine development timeline in the world.
6. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is the most significant bipartisan legislative effort that Congress has undertaken in decades to tackle these challenges.
7. BAAJA addresses key constraints stifling American industry by requiring interregional transmission planning, strengthening the federal backstop for nationally significant transmission lines, and creating a faster, more predictable process for connecting new generation to the grid.
8. BAAJA also makes permits more durable by imposing tighter timelines for litigation and limiting frivolous lawsuits that can halt projects indefinitely, while preserving community input and judicial review of substantive agency decisions.”
The letter was organized by @arnabdatta321 on behalf of @IFP and covered exclusively by the WSJ this morning.
@JamesMorrone highlights the real costs of permitting delays, including a power line that waited 16 years for approval!
Environmental review should address legitimate concerns, not become a tool for indefinite obstruction. Once those concerns are addressed and legal requirements met, projects—whether wind, gas, or nuclear—need certainty to move forward.
Unnecessary delays discourage investment and ultimately raise energy costs for American consumers.
Permitting is broken, and it costs us jobs and higher electricity bills.
Take the TransWest Express power line. Applied in 2007. Approved in 2023.
It’s a power line, not a pyramid. My op-ed on why we need BAAJA's reforms now: washingtonexaminer.com/op-ed…
An important bipartisan argument for permitting reform from @JasonBordoff: The same obstacles that delay oil and gas projects also impede nuclear, renewables, and transmission.
Environmental review was initially intended to identify and assess environmental impacts, not become an indefinite obstacle to building.
Whatever your preferred energy mix, permitting reform is necessary so America can build it!
My take on the new permitting reform bill @ForeignPolicy. It is among the most important policy measures in decades to advance clean energy, meet rising energy needs, and rein in soaring energy prices--and very likely to lead to a net reduction in carbon emissions. When paired with strong climate policy, it is also necessary to allow the rapid buildout of infrastructure needed to drive emissions sharply down. Rejecting it because it may also benefit oil and gas projects would sacrifice a historic opportunity to advance American security, affordability, and clean energy goals simultaneously.
foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/14…
Important point from @RealEJAntoni: Banks generally want to serve lawful customers. But when regulators and examiners rely on subjective standards like rep risk, banks have an incentive to anticipate Washington's political and ideological priorities rather than simply assess financial risk.
That's the underlying problem reform needs to address.
townhall.com/columnists/ej-a…
Agree with @EconWithNick. The OCC's findings reinforce why government-imposed reputational risk was a problem in the first place.
Removing it from bank supervision was an important first step. Congress should make that reform permanent through the FIRM Act while also addressing the BSA/AML incentives that can drive unnecessary debanking.
American banks are caught between two kinds of punishment. If they miss dirty money, regulators fine them. If they flag it and close the account, they get sued for debanking.
247wallst.com/investing/2026…
David Ibsen retweeted
AFFM applauds lawmakers for working across the aisle to cut unnecessary red tape, lower costs and give American businesses the certainty they need to invest, build and grow.
Congress should keep the bipartisan momentum going.
forfreemarkets.org/affm-appl…
But the northeastern United States does not have enough pipelines to fully meet New England’s demand for gas. As a result, the region imports L.N.G., which trades on global markets at a higher price than pipeline gas. This gas scarcity has not caused abundant clean energy to magically materialize in New England.
The clean energy provisions of the permitting deal are very good — and the fossil fuel provisions are mostly good too!
slowboring.com/p/the-permitt…
Faced with the sudden loss of export demand, refiners would soon reduce operations. Moreover, because refineries produce several fuels together, lower refinery runs would also reduce supplies of gasoline and jet fuel, causing prices for those products to rise.
In my latest column @ForeignPolicy, coauthored with @Bob_McNally (who served under Bush43 in same role I had under Obama), we argue that banning diesel exports would backfire. Rather than lowering prices, in the longer term it would harm the U.S. economically and geopolitically and undermine this administration's own energy dominance agenda. foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/29…
David Ibsen retweeted
A diesel export ban would interfere with the market precisely when energy markets are under extraordinary stress.
Diesel is a globally-traded commodity, and its price is ultimately determined by market forces—not government mandates.
@AmerComm @consumerpal American Energy Leadership Institute @ForFreeMarkets @AFPhq @taxreformer @C3SolutionsNews @CFEconomy @CFandP @CFIFonline @ceidotorg @ConservAmerica @CASE_forAmerica @ConsumerChoiceC @FamBizCoalition Frontiers of Freedom @HispLeadFund @IPI Main Street Foundation @MarketInstitute @MtnStatesPolicy @PelicanInst @RioGrandeFndn @SBECouncil @southwestpolicy @Protectaxpayers @JoinYoungVoices
To think about this issue clearly, start with this basic truth: banks want customers. They want to do business with almost every possible lawful customer, because they don’t make money by banning customers.
Good piece on the problem of debanking and how to fix it from @kerpen
cagle.com/columnist/phil-ker…
Pleasure to chat with Drew Steele and @FLVoiceNews about gov driven debanking and the need for Congress to pass the FIRM Act!
🚨DAVID IBSEN (@dlibsen): "President Trump last year, he issued an executive order banning [de-banking], [...] what we'd like to see happen now is that executive order become law so that the next president, the next administration, can't kind of go back to how it was before."
Correct. When AI is used to commit fraud, theft, discrimination, or privacy violations, the first question should be how existing law applies — not how quickly lawmakers can create another blanket restriction, regulation, or law.
