Gas projects face timeline pressures despite friendlier permitting climate

Despite a more welcoming federal permitting environment in Washington, supply chain delays and litigation risk are challenging midstream natural gas project timelines and budgets, natural gas sector CEOs said.

During a panel discussion at the Energy Bar Association's 2025 Energy Forum Sept. 16, gas industry executives described a major upswing in gas demand ahead, paired with some ongoing hurdles to completing midstream projects.

"We do think that schedules are shrinking in terms of permitting, but we're also seeing expansion in schedules around supply chain-related issues," said Scott Hallam, president and CEO of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners. He listed tariffs, timelines to acquire turbines for compressors, and access to steel as ongoing concerns.

"The use of turbines for power generation and behind the meter has been an expansive aspect of our project schedules," Hallam said. "Believe it or not, where once, [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] was probably the longest pole in the tent in terms of permitting, today it takes longer to get a solar turbine than it does to get a FERC certificate."

Overall, Hallam said the ambition to develop large-scale infrastructure is greater than it has been in a long time, and "there's a degree of optimism that we're going to be able to get these assets in service the next three to four years."

Regulatory climate

President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive orders aimed at speeding energy project development, and agencies have followed up with action. Among the myriad initiatives, the administration has rescinded National Environmental Policy Act guidance and rules that called for more expansive consideration of climate impacts, a highly litigated area for the gas sector.

Energy attorneys have said, however, that an approach that now relies heavily on guidance also poses the risk that a subsequent administration could shift course fairly quickly.

The panel of CEOs said permitting legislation is needed to make changes durable.

It is clear the Trump administration wants the federal government to move projects and get things done, said Jim Kerr, Southern Company Gas' chairman, president, and CEO. "But we still have, until the Congress acts, some risk ultimately in the courts around the litigation, and that's the single biggest risk that is priced in that project."

The US House of Representatives' Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, Republican-Arkansas, and Representative Jared Golden, Democrat-Maine, have introduced legislation meant to reduce NEPA litigation, but some Democrats have expressed wariness of pushing for action while the Trump administration takes steps to slow some renewable energy projects.

High-demand outlook

EQT President and CEO Toby Rice described a US gas market characterized by a major upturn in demand, midstream infrastructure that has already maximized utilization, and a risk for energy prices, particularly for smaller consumers, as AI data centers grow.

"When you step back and you add it up, you're talking about a 20%-40% increase in natural gas demand," Rice said, discussing demand out to 2030.

Analysts with S&P Global Commodity Insights in February estimated that total US gas demand could increase from 2024 levels by 22 Bcf/d to 143 Bcf/d in 2031.

"We're maxed out, so it doesn't need to be a huge amount of demand that's going to set off a lot of big issues," Rice said, describing industry efforts to get the most out of existing midstream infrastructure.

The main policy change Rice said EQT would like to see in Washington in the next few years is litigation reform, Rice said. "That is our biggest issue."

But Rice also said there are "dozens and dozens" of other issues keeping markets from working effectively to incentivize needed infrastructure. The panel discussed the difficulties merchant generators face in deregulated power markets in being compensated for having capacity available and recovering their fuel costs.

"I think permitting reform is absolutely inevitable, because it has to be," Rice said, noting that under extreme circumstances, Germany moved quickly after the start of the Ukraine war to get regasification facilities approved and built.

"The question is, are we going to be reactive? And is it going to take a crisis for the US to wake up?" Rice said.

Hallam estimated that the US needs 20-25 Bcf of incremental pipeline capacity by the mid-2030s, or potentially by 2030. "We are woefully behind in terms of building out that capacity to get the gas from where it's being produced to where it's being consumed," he said.

Elsewhere, Kerr offered that he was beginning to see a positive shift among Democratic governors in some parts of the country, such as the mid-Atlantic and New England, where there had been political impediments to gas development.

"The conversation is changing as this myth that there was some easy transition to an all-electric, all-renewable, non-dispatchable, non-energy-dense ... future is, in fact, not being borne out," Kerr said.

For Southern Company Gas, Kerr said the primary regulatory concern is in Illinois, where a proceeding is underway on the future of gas.

"I would love to see some clarity—that folks realize that it will be an essentially permanent part of that economy," Kerr said.