The Energy Freedom Plan: An Overview – Alex Epstein

By Alex Epstein

It may seem impossible, but 4 years from now America can have

Record oil and gas production
Cheap, plentiful, reliable electricity
High environmental quality”
Low climate danger
A nuclear renaissance

For well over a year I’ve been working on an Energy Freedom Plan that can get us there.

Here is an overview, including 25 essential policy changes. In the very near future I’ll be releasing the full plan, including some 125 executive actions that the new administration can take to rapidly unleash American energy.

Goal: Unleash responsible development

Anti-development policies prevent the drilling, mining, transporting, and building all energy needs to reach its potential—from natural gas to nuclear to solar. Liberating responsible development will create unprecedented US energy abundance.

1: Unleash responsible development on federal lands/waters

Anti-development policies prevent us from tapping enormous energy reserves on federal lands/waters.Responsible development can unlock the full energy potential of 1/4 of the US (!) while protecting environmental quality.

2: Limit NEPA

The leading source of project delays is the abuse of NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) to require endless environmental reviews.Dramatically limiting NEPA’s complexity and scope will help all energy reach its potential, from oil to nuclear to geothermal.

3: Stop anti-development lawfare

Anti-development groups cause extensive energy delays by suing to stop projects they have no rightful say over.Limiting standing to those directly impacted by a project’s health or property risks will dramatically reduce delays.

4: Stop inflating permitting requirements

The Biden administration added numerous requirements to our already onerous permitting processes—such as quantifying globally trivial GHG impacts.Limiting permitting to its legal scope will help us build crucial energy infrastructure.

Goal: End preferences for unreliable electricity

Our grid is being ruined by systemic preferences for unreliable electricity, which cause prices to rise and reliability to decline. Ending these preferences and prioritizing reliability is needed to make power cheap and reliable again.

5: Require grid regulators to reward reliability and punish unreliability

State/federal regulators have brought our grid to crisis by failing to address reliability problems and even actively favoring unreliable power.Requiring reliability is essential to our grid’s future.

6: Reform FERC to return to its mission of considering only cost, reliability, and safety

FERC is delaying vital gas infrastructure and failing to preserve grid reliability in the name of “climate.”Focusing FERC will make both electricity and heating cheaper and more reliable.

7: Remove/reduce subsidies for intermittent energy whenever possible

Solar and wind subsidies increase the cost of electricity and make the grid less reliable.Scrapping subsidies will help create real competition so we get the cheapest, most reliable electricity mix possible.

8: End forced electrification

Given that reliable power is scarce and about to be far scarcer due to AI, forced electrification—e.g., EV mandates—will overload our grid in addition to destroying consumer choice.Free-market electrification is the moral and practical policy.

Goal: Set environmental standards using cost-benefit analysis

The EPA harms prosperity and health via emissions standards that impose huge costs for little or no benefit. Real cost-benefit analysis, including objective health science will promote prosperity and environmental quality.

9: Objectively calculate environmental benefits

EPA justifies energy-destroying policies via absurdly inflated benefit calculations, e.g., claiming to save households $15K a year in health costs.Policies based on objective calculations will make us wealthier and healthier.

10: Rigorously consider the full cost of policies

EPA is destroying our grid by shutting down reliable power plants—and yet claims this is virtually costless!If EPA looks at the full cost of policies it will quickly see that power plant shutdowns fail the cost-benefit test.

13: Utilize rigorous health science, not health speculation

EPA often uses wild speculation, citing weak associations, in order to pursue a puritanical zero-emissions agenda.If EPA limits itself to rigorous health science it can be genuinely pro-health, not anti-industry.

14: Require transparency in EPA research and communication

Opaqueness about its practices (e.g., “secret science”) allows EPA to get away with failures to do proper cost-benefit analysis.Requiring transparency will improve the EPA by exposing its many problematic practices.

Goal: Address climate danger through resilience and innovation, not punishing America

“Climate policy” that singles out US emissions makes us poorer and less resilient while global emissions go up. Becoming more resilient and unleashing innovation are the keys to climate safety.

15: Recognize today’s unprecedented safety from climate danger

Government says we have a fossil fueled “climate crisis” even though fossil fuels have helped reduce climate-related disaster deaths by 98%.Recognizing climate reality is key to stopping deadly “climate policy.”

16: Unwind the “whole of government” approach to climate

The Biden administration has turned every nook and cranny of the federal government into an attacker of fossil fuels.Unwinding this entire apparatus will be difficult—but it’s crucial to unleashing American energy.

17: Withdraw from the Paris Agreement and other anti-energy agreements

Paris immorally calls for eliminating fossil fuels—the only near-term way to provide affordable, reliable energy for billions.Withdrawing is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and the world.

18: Fundamentally reform international bodies to embrace energy freedom

The US is part of numerous international bodies—IEA, IMF, World Bank, IPCC—that in one way or another attack energy freedom.It’s time to wield our significant influence over these groups for good.

19: Minimize wildfire damage via rigorous prevention

Rising wildfire damage is primarily a policy failure—e.g., “low-impact” management of forests and grasslands—not a climate problem.Rigorous prevention will prevent the kind of unmitigated disaster LA is experiencing.

Goal: Unleash nuclear energy from pseudoscientific restrictions

The strangulation of nuclear has made it 10 times more expensive than it needs to be. Unleashing nuclear, including getting rid of pseudoscientific policies like LNT and ALARA, will make possible a nuclear renaissance.

20: Change the NRC’s mission from infinite risk reduction to maximum facilitation of safe nuclear energy

NRC’s obsession with eliminating any risk is depriving Americans of a nuclear renaissance and therefore safer power.A mission change will point us in the right direction.

21: Set science-based safety thresholds for radiation

Current allowable radiation levels are set 50x lower than what science shows is safe, based on a false “Linear No Threshold” model of danger.Replacing “LNT” with science-based thresholds is the key to unleashing nuclear.

22: Embrace cost-effective approaches to used nuclear fuel

Government pushes costly “permanent” storage of used nuclear fuel even though it can be safely stored in dry casks—or significantly recycled.Embracing local storage and recycling will cut costs and promote safety.

23: Promote nuclear R&D using existing DOE resources

Draconian NRC regulations have stalled US nuclear innovation for decades.Using existing DOE resources, such as DOE land devoted to rapid performance-testing of new technologies, can help nuclear make fast progress.

24: Expedite permitting for nuclear plants

Nuclear plants are clean, compact, and have tiny impacts on their surroundings. Delaying them by requiring years of “impact statements” is appalling.Limiting permitting to genuine concerns will save years and billions for every plant.

25: Base nuclear evacuation guidelines on objective cost-benefit analysis

While nuclear accidents have caused no deaths, premature evacuations have been costly and deadly.Basing evacuations on science will reduce costs while increasing public confidence in ultra-safe nuclear.

Please share these 25 policy changes—the heart of The Energy Freedom Plan—with your favorite politicians. The more our leaders know about the path to unleashing American energy, the better.