Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t think U.S. Steel should have the right to sell its business to Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation. Previously, some Republican senators have thought they should also have the power to break deals between private companies. And it doesn’t stop there. During the pandemic, airlines had to get government permission to distribute hand sanitizer to passengers. Energy projects require years of permitting. And of course, in most places, Americans can’t build whatever they want on their own land without government permission.
Welcome to the permit economy. It shouldn’t be this way.
Permit reform is not just a bureaucratic quibble. It is a crucial moral issue for anyone who believes in free markets, individual liberty, and economic progress. Our permit system is a web of bureaucracy that stifles innovation, slows growth, leaves Americans poorer, less free, and more frustrated with a government that is more interested in regulating us than enabling us to prosper.
This isn’t some arcane topic for policy experts, but about the real, tangible impacts that over-regulation has on everyday Americans. Housing costs, job opportunities, energy prices, and technological progress all depend on how our government handles permits. And right now, our government is failing miserably.
Take housing, for example. Some places, like California and New York City, are facing a crisis due in large part to cumbersome permitting processes. Builders must navigate a Kafkaesque maze of regulations just to get a building permit granted and even begin construction. These delays add years to construction and add tens of thousands of dollars to costs per unit.
This isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s a disaster for low- and moderate-income families who are being shut out of the housing market. The American dream of homeownership is being choked off by red tape. To make matters worse, rents are being artificially inflated in job-rich cities, locking Americans out of the lucrative labor market.
But this is just the beginning. Permitting processes are straining the energy sector. Critical infrastructure like pipelines, wind farms, and grid modernization have been held up for years by endless environmental reviews, public comments, and litigation. Now, two judges are warning developers that permits that took years to obtain could be revoked on a whim under pressure from climate activists.
This is not just bad policy, it is economic sabotage that leads to higher prices, less reliable supplies, and missed opportunities for cleaner and more efficient energy.
What about other infrastructure? Roads, bridges, and transportation systems don’t get fixed because it takes years, sometimes decades, to approve repairs. Outdated and bloated processes prioritize procedures over results, making some projects obsolete before they even begin. Meanwhile, governments waste huge amounts of money on infrastructure subsidies when all they need is permission for people to build.
Free markets thrive on innovation and speed, and can respond quickly to society’s needs. Our current system is the opposite: slow, cumbersome and designed to hinder change rather than encourage it.
This doesn’t just hurt businesses, it hurts everyone. Imagine what we could accomplish with reform: more affordable housing, more jobs, lower energy prices, modernized infrastructure. We could unleash a new wave of American innovation and growth. Yet these reforms have repeatedly been blocked by bureaucrats protecting their turf, politicians appeasing special interests, and activists who believe halting progress is good.
The time for reform is now. Every delay means lost opportunity for Americans who deserve better: a government that fosters progress instead of hindering it, true free markets not bound by bureaucracy, and a future where prosperity trumps red tape.
The good news is that there are a number of ideas for permit reform. Of course, in an ideal world, construction and innovation should generally be permitted by default. Where this does not happen, the priority should be to create a “one-stop-shop” federal permitting agency (a single point of contact for applicants to coordinate between various agencies) to reduce duplication. This would be combined with strict timelines for permit review, including a “shot clock” mechanism whereby permits would be automatically approved if a decision is not made by the deadline.
Environmental review should be made more efficient by fundamentally reforming the National Environmental Policy Act process, imposing page limits on environmental impact statements, and allowing for clearer exclusion of routine and low-impact projects. State-level reforms should be encouraged through federal incentives, and a “presumptive approval” system should be implemented for routine projects.
This is not just good policy, it’s a moral imperative. Accepting reform will restore healthy power between government and individuals, and ensure that America remains a place where innovation thrives, entrepreneurs succeed, and opportunity is universal. It’s about restoring the principles that made this country great.
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