The United States cannot build a single high-voltage transmission line across a state border without navigating a labyrinth of overlapping federal, state, and local permits — a process that now averages over a decade and costs more in legal fees than steel. This week, we trace how a well-intentioned provision buried in the National Environmental Policy Act became the invisible veto that energy developers, grid operators, and even the Pentagon have quietly identified as the single largest obstacle to keeping the American power grid from falling catastrophically behind demand. It's not climate policy, it's not utility lobbying, it's not even partisan gridlock — it's a paperwork problem with a body count.