Policy and Energy Notes With Neil: Iran, Permitting Reform, and the Ratepayer Protection Pledge

Conflict in Iran has caused turmoil in the energy world, with oil supply and prices playing a major role. Meanwhile, major AI players signed President Trump’s Rate Payer Protection Pledge, and permitting reform negotiations are starting to show signs of life once again. 

What does it all mean? Neil Chatterjee, Palmetto’s Chief Governmental Affairs Officer and former Chair of FERC, breaks it all down.

Watch the full remarks or read the highlights below. This conversation was recorded on the morning of Thursday, March 12, 2026.

On the conflict in Iran

We're almost 10 days into the conflict in Iran and we're seeing dramatic disruptions in the flow of oil, natural gas, petrochemicals, and fertilizer. The issue is getting those goods through the Strait of Hormuz, where maybe a quarter of the world's oil supply flows. This is going to have complicated domestic and global economic impacts.

China could be hurt in the short term because it’s dependent on imports of oil and natural gas but, as the world's leading electrostate, could benefit long term if this precipitates a move towards greater deployment of clean energy resources around the world.

We saw this happen before in the 1970s. The growth in the US of solar and wind was really driven by oil shocks and people wanting to move away from oil products. The duration of this conflict could influence how those strategic energy decisions are made. As somebody who's focused on the deployment of clean energy resources in the US and further building out the supply chain domestically, I'm choosing to see potential opportunities here.

On the permitting reform negotiations

The biggest recent domestic development has been the reemergence of bipartisan negotiations regarding federal legislative permitting reform. There had been some momentum, but leading Democrat negotiators backed away after the administration unilaterally canceled some offshore wind projects. These Democratic senators have come back to the table. That gives some hope for a breakthrough. 

However, we are in an election year. I've spoken with Democrat members of Congress who have said that they don't have much incentive to bail out Republicans and the White House on energy and affordability right now. And cooperating on permitting reform could be that lifeline to Republicans.
Democrats believe they're going to have a successful midterm and will be in a better position to negotiate next Congress. This is the same logic that Republicans had at the end of the last Congress. 

Well, here we are a year and a half later and we've seen no movement on reform. It's going to require bipartisan cooperation and be subject to a lot of greater machinations in the Senate.

On data centers and AI

The White House had a big event last week where AI execs signed on to what's called the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a commitment from these hyperscalers that they will not pass on the costs for powering AI to consumers. 

A lot of people pooh-poohed this and said, "It's nonbinding. It's not a big deal. It doesn't have any teeth to it." 

I disagree with that assessment. There are agencies, like my former agency, FERC, that have tools that could put teeth behind a pledge like this. And should that happen, it'd be very difficult to push back when you've just publicly signed this Ratepayer Protection Pledge in front of the President of the United States and the world. So, I think it was a clever move by the White House to get buy-in on this idea: that the costs of winning the AI race aren't going to be borne by American consumers. 

On the opportunity for distributed generation

All of this, ranging from conflict in Iran to meeting the needs of AI and data centers in the US, provides huge opportunities for distributed generation and for demand side resources.