In this New York Times guest essay, TPR excerpts Jigar Shah— former director of the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, and frequent Verdexchange contributor—and Raj Pannu, CEO of Emergence Creative, sounding the alarm on America’s crumbling infrastructure and its implications for economic competitiveness, energy resilience, and everyday quality of life. Echoing a theme central to Verdexchange since 2008, they argue that stalled investment, delayed permitting, and wavering federal resolve threaten to derail once-promising clean energy and AI-powered industrial revitalization efforts. With the grid straining under rising electricity demands and global competitors surging ahead, Shah and Pannu call for a national recommitment to modernizing infrastructure as a prerequisite for prosperity and security.
"The United States is sleepwalking into an infrastructure crisis — one that will quietly degrade our quality of life and kneecap our ability to compete in the global economy."
"Shaky infrastructure isn’t a problem just for the tech sector. As the United States scrambles to bring back manufacturing, the infrastructure undergirding it is nowhere near ready. More than 920 new or expanded manufacturing facilities have been announced since 2021, projects to make semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals processing and other components here at home.
For a moment, it seemed that America was serious about modernizing its infrastructure: The Biden administration tried to accelerate permitting, improve transmission planning and unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding for upgrades. There was real momentum.
Since then, the repeated brinkmanship over government funding and debt ceilings — and short-term budget deals that gut long-term investments — have thrown these gains into limbo. Money for key offices at the Department of Energy and Department of Transportation has been delayed. The House of Representatives’ proposal to rescind billions in clean energy tax credits and claw back unspent Inflation Reduction Act funds has further chilled investor confidence.
Developers are pausing contracts, and clean energy projects, which help improve the resilience and efficiency of our energy system, are in limbo. According to E2, a nonpartisan group representing business leaders, more than 13,000 clean energy jobs have been lost since the beginning of 2025, largely because of delays and uncertainty. Billions in investment have been held back as projects have stalled. The result? Momentum is lost — possibly for a long time.
The new budget reconciliation deal before the Senate makes these infrastructure bottlenecks worse. It strips away hard-fought gains made under the Biden administration’s agenda — delaying transmission reform, gutting support for fast electricity deployment and muddying the waters for public-private investment. The signal to industry is clear: America can’t make up its mind."
Read the full piece on New York Times.
- Log in to post comments
