08. Continuously Evaluate and Improve Infrastructure Policies:

IIJA, IRA and CHIPS Act, empower the Administration to develop something akin to Industrial Policy in advancing the broad-ranging objectives set out in those laws. The policies announced by the Administration to date will likely result in major changes in our infrastructure, the ways in which U.S. companies operate and the lives of people in communities. As noted last year, no federal Agency is charged with reviewing these infrastructure transition policies. We need not focus on postmortem results, but rather a more real-time review process, allowing for recalibration of projects, their funding and their tariff and fiscal reviews. There has been no Life Cycle Analysis of the transition from fossil fuels to “renewables” such as wind and solar, for utility scale vs distributed wind and solar, for wind and solar vs natural gas transitioning to hydrogen, for Carbon Capture (mechanical or natural) vs shutdown or curtailment of facilities, for distributed generation vs long distance transportation etc. Up to this point, project prioritization through subsidies or permitting decisions has been largely determined through intuition and politics. There is clear potential for policies that are extremely costly in terms of both money and economic impact, but which may be less than optimally effective in minimizing carbon emissions, protecting the environment, or improving lives in communities. Infrastructure decisions have long lived effects and may affect lives in communities for generations. Adverse unintended consequences will be difficult to remedy. BP2025 recommends empowering the White House Office to oversee continuous review and Life Cycle Analysis of significant infrastructure policies, particularly in the energy sector. We further recommend that digital systems be made available to organize and assess input 4 into this process by States, Communities, the Private sector, and the concerned Public.