The High Costs and Dangers of Permitting Delays (From The National Interest)

If the United States cannot reform its permitting process, decade-long delays will hold back the infrastructure needed to compete with China on AI.

In America, it was once common to build major public infrastructure projects quickly, of high quality, with broad and compelling public benefits. Today, federal permitting processes can tie up important projects for more than a decade, raising costs and killing many of them.

The problem is especially acute in the energy sector, and risks derailing America’s AI lead over China, which has unleashed the full force of its government and industry to build infrastructure expeditiously.

It was not always this way.

For example, America’s interstate highway system got out of the gate quickly after it became law in August 1956. By January 1961, as President Eisenhower left office, 10,440 miles, or 25 percent of the system, were open to traffic.

Paul Steidler discusses the need for permitting reform in The National Interest here.