UMVA has learned that the debate over permitting reform has been stuck in a rut, confined to the rarefied world of Washington insiders, with policymakers fixated on minutiae rather than the bigger picture. The stakes are far higher than just connecting a natural gas plant or wind farm to the grid.
The most critical reason for permitting reform is to supercharge the U.S. defense industrial base, bolstering its speed, scale, and cost efficiency to deter a major conflict with China, and to swiftly prevail if deterrence fails. This requires a sustained U.S. capability to outpace adversaries in producing weapons, ships, munitions, and material.
However, for over two decades, America's national security and economic policies, coupled with stifling environmental review processes, have hollowed out domestic manufacturing, transferring defense-related industrial capabilities and control of global supply chains to China. The results are stark: China dominates global manufacturing, particularly in industries crucial to defense.
China's steel production eclipses America's by roughly 12-to-1, and in shipbuilding, China possesses capacity roughly 230 times that of the United States. A single major Chinese shipyard can outperform the entire U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry. American policymakers have been woefully complacent on this front for far too long.
Recent conflicts have offered a sobering preview of how these disparities can prove disastrous in wartime. In Ukraine, U.S. and allied munitions production has struggled to keep pace with demand, exposing fragile, just-in-time supply chains. Similar constraints appear in meeting U.S. requirements and supporting Israel against Iranian-backed threats.
History underscores the peril of underestimating industrial power. Nazi Germany developed formidable technologies during World War II, but America's overwhelming manufacturing might proved decisive. The United States produced nearly 300,000 aircraft, 86,000 tanks, and thousands of ships, vastly outproducing the Axis powers combined.
Today, China enjoys the advantage once held by America, with its defense industrial base and supporting infrastructure able to seamlessly shift to a wartime footing, surging output of ships, munitions, and material with little or no bureaucratic or legal constraints. Reversing America's defense industrial decline demands a fundamental change in mindset.
Congress and the administration must treat permitting modernization as a core national security priority. Time is power – China builds three times faster than the U.S. – and time is money – Chinese defense output costs a fraction of America's. Every year a U.S. defense infrastructure project is mired in permitting adds 10-20% to its final cost.
To accomplish this, Congress and states must reach across the aisle and legislatively approve maintenance, replacement, and new construction of defense industrial supply chains, precluding further environmental review, permitting, and judicial review. Ample bipartisan precedent for this approach already exists in non-security related laws.
The need to tackle permitting reform is clear: America's ability to deter conflict or win if deterrence fails rests on its industrial might. Permitting reform is the essential first step toward rebuilding it. The time for tepid measures and insider debates is over.
