Government red tape concept and American bureaucracy symbol as an icon of the flag of the United States with the red stripes getting tangled in confusion as a metaphor for political and administration inefficiency.
In a turn of events that should surprise absolutely no one, China implemented new export controls to reduce the flow of critical rare-earth metals shipments to the United States, highlighting a key weakness in the U.S. military supply chain.
These restrictions are more than economic maneuvers — they are a strategic weapon in a broader geopolitical rivalry. Why can China squeeze the United States like this? Because the U.S. permitting process is overly burdensome and a strategic liability.
Despite significant deposits and access to rare-earth minerals — the materials needed to build smartphones, electric cars and critical military systems — the United States imported 70 percent of its rare-earth metal supplies from China between 2020 and 2023.
These metals are essential to the U.S.’s ability to defend itself, as they are used in a variety of military systems ranging from the advanced F-35 stealth fighter to Tomahawk missiles and other key electrical components. Continued reliance on a nation that is increasingly positioning itself as a rival is not a sound strategy, and recent efforts to implement top-down industrial policies are not the solution.
Geopolitics isn’t the only area affected by permitting issues; it’s also affecting the nation’s ability to innovate and power the economy.
The federal permitting process, despite being a well-intentioned system to safeguard the health and property rights of communities and ecosystems, has become a costly choke point preventing businesses from competing at home and abroad.
It takes four to five years to receive the appropriate federal permits to begin any construction — and that’s before accounting for the vast and often redundant state permitting processes. Mining projects alone take an average of eight to nine years before receiving federal approval, according to a recent McKinsey & Co. report.
Making matters worse, such projects often face a litany of baseless lawsuits challenging the government’s permitting approval or the development itself. A report found that 80 percent of the time between 2013 and 2022, the government agency involved won appeals cases, a higher winning percentage than in years past.
To understand how these regulatory processes weakened the national defense, consider what happened to domestic mining and processing of rare-earth metals. Until the late 1990s, the United States was a major extractor and processor of the world’s rare-earth elements.
However, a wave of new, restrictive federal regulations — coupled with China’s few, if any, regulations — allowed China to undercut the U.S. industry, quickly capturing market share.
That brings us to the present, where China accounts for 70 percent of the world’s rare-earth metal extraction and 90 percent of its processing.
The burdensome nature of the permitting process is not solely restricted to geopolitical issues. The quagmire that is the federal permitting process constrains innovation and increases costs for consumers and businesses.
Take energy, for example. The cost and demand of electricity are front and center of the country’s focus, in part stemming from the energy costs of the AI revolution, and the construction of data centers and rising residential consumption.
Instead of seeing the construction of needed energy-producing facilities, we see only delays and “coming soon” signs. Regulations are blocking the road forward, leaving all energy projects, including renewable and green energy projects, stuck in regulatory purgatory.
Energy demands and costs are projected to keep rising over the next decade.
Failing to develop new technological innovations is a recipe for economic disaster. A streamlined permitting process would create jobs, lower energy costs and make life generally more affordable for Americans.
Permitting reform is not about abandoning environmental stewardship; it’s about balancing ecological concerns with strategic necessity. The current system is not working. The United States can barely build anything it needs right now. Things Americans desperately need, such as power plants or housing developments, are stuck in the regulatory mud.
Americans shouldn’t have to, nor can they, wait any longer for a better approach to meeting energy needs.
The United States cannot allow an overly burdensome regulatory process to prevent innovation nor weaken its geopolitical positioning. The solution is clear: the nation must reform its permitting process to unlock economic advancement and strengthen its military capabilities.
The United States is home to entrepreneurs and innovators with a bold vision for the future, and already contains the natural resources needed to drive energy production and, in turn, the economy to new heights. Policymakers at the federal and state levels should prioritize permitting reform that accelerates the development of critical industries, especially those of strategic importance.
Several potential bills have been introduced in Congress, such as the SPEED Act and the PERMIT Act, both of which streamline the permitting process without sacrificing environmental and property rights-related concerns.
With permitting reform, we can build a resilient, secure and affordable future — one that strengthens the economy and national security.