In November 1973, President Richard Nixon launched Project Independence to jump-start domestic energy production in a United States that had become too dependent on foreign oil. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a proactive plan to avoid future catastrophes — the catastrophe had already happened. The Nixon administration was hastily responding to the fallout from the Arab-Israeli War, which slammed the U.S. economy with an OPEC oil embargo that sent shockwaves across the nation.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created in response. The reserve was intended to provide future generations with a cushion against similar events and protect the U.S. and its allies from energy blackmail.

Most recently, the Biden administration tapped into the SPR in response to a spike in global oil prices driven in large part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This response helped mitigate people’s pain at the pump and allowed the U.S. to support NATO partners who had been cut off from Russian energy. But it also drained our reserve by more than 40 %.

This news comes as we find ourselves once again caught in an increasingly turbulent world with geopolitical upheavals threatening the global energy landscape. An expansion of the tragic new conflict in the Middle East has the potential to further disrupt global supplies of oil and drive up prices.

Instead of waiting for future events to dictate a hasty response, lawmakers should see the warning signs and make every effort to boost American energy independence now so that the SPR doesn’t become our only option. Specifically, comprehensive permitting reforms are needed.

To be clear, the U.S. isn’t in the same position today as it was decades ago. In 2019, we once again became a net energy exporter , a status not seen since the 1950s. However, the past couple of years show that we’re not as secure as we ought to be.

Congressional action on permitting reform would free up our energy infrastructure and allow us to double down on domestic energy production. What’s more, permitting reforms would help us diversify our options with new energy sources and maximize the return on investment from the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy provisions. Both sides of the aisle clearly have a stake here.

The debt ceiling deal reached earlier this year produced minor progress on this front. Negotiators were able to achieve updates to the National Environmental Policy Act that will expedite the permitting process by, for example, setting a two-year limit on environmental impact statements. They were also able to expedite approvals for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

However, the deal fell short of a comprehensive solution, leaving out fixes for issues such as electricity transmission. By continuing to kick the can down the road on these reforms, lawmakers are only leaving us handcuffed in our efforts to shore up domestic energy capacity and improve our ability to ride out future storms from global conflicts.

In fact, the International Energy Agency, another legacy of the '70s oil shock, recently reported that the world needs to add or replace nearly 50 million miles of transmission lines by 2040 in order to meet climate goals. The U.S. can and should lead the charge on this here at home. To do that, lawmakers need to make necessary changes, such as shortening sighting and permitting timelines for interregional lines.

This will require an ambitious campaign of bipartisan cooperation. But the time is right for this kind of action. Though Congress recently averted a shutdown with an agreement that funds the government into early 2024, a new round of negotiations is not far off.

The Institute for Progress recently outlined what this deal could look like. In return for the transmission fixes that will open up our ability to adopt clean sources of energy, judicial reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act could include time limits on legal injunctions, a shortened statute of limitations, and narrowing requirements for standing so that traditional energy projects can move forward in a timely manner.

There is a lot of room for compromise here. Lawmakers should begin now to iron out these details and ensure that a comprehensive raft of reforms is ready to go when the opportunity strikes.

While it isn’t 1973, today’s global unrest and a drained petroleum reserve should still serve as a call to action and a reminder that energy undergirds everything from environmental protection to economic stability and national security. Lawmakers need to proactively work to make sure America is ready for whatever comes next.

Liam deClive-Lowe and Paolo Mastrangelo are the co-founders and co-presidents of American Policy Ventures , a new project that will actively work to support members of Congress working to find bipartisan solutions to our nation’s most pressing issues.