FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 31, 2026
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ICYMI: Sen. Armstrong Outlines Urgency of Permitting Reform to Boost Energy Grid and National Security in 535 News Editorial
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Alan Armstrong (R-OK) published an op-ed today in 535 News detailing how bureaucratic red tape and federal permitting paralysis threaten American energy reliability, economic competitiveness, and national defense readiness.
In the piece, Senator Armstrong draws on his decades of experience as an energy industry executive to outline how excessive delays, endless litigation, and interconnection backlogs leave key industries—from steel and aluminum manufacturing to AI power infrastructure—vulnerable to foreign competitors like China.
Read the full piece here and below.
AMERICA BUILT THE 20TH CENTURY. CAN WE BUILD THE 21ST?
BY: SENATOR ALAN ARMSTRONG (R-OK)
America’s 21st-century ambitions—from leading the artificial intelligence boom to revitalizing domestic manufacturing—rest on an aging physical foundation designed for the 20th century. The United States remains a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship, but we lose that edge if we cannot build the infrastructure required to support these advances.
America has a proud history as a nation of builders. In the post-World War II era, Americans constructed mega-bridges and entire expressway systems in mere years. But in the decades since, the federal permitting system has become so cumbersome that it is often easier to block a project than to build one. A system well intentioned to protect the environment and the public interest has, paradoxically, become a primary obstacle to the progress our nation urgently needs and the environmental benefits that progress enables.
The result is permitting paralysis—regulatory gridlock that affects nearly every sector of the economy and threatens economic competitiveness and national security.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the U.S. electrical grid, which is choked by an interconnection backlog that prevents the deployment of new energy. Utilities are quoting 8 to 15 years to complete studies for a single interconnection request. The nation needs over 160 gigawatts of new power in the next four years, yet permitting and building required transmission lines can take 7 to 19 years. These delays not only hinder our ability to meet growing power demand but also restrain the deployment of more efficient, more sustainable energy technologies. Under the current system, large power consumers like major industrial players and data center developers are increasingly bypassing the public grid entirely, building private “behind-the-meter” energy systems because public infrastructure cannot keep pace.
These bottlenecks have severe consequences for consumers and manufacturers alike, particularly the American steel industry, which depends on stable, affordable power. When power costs recently surged 76 percent year over year in PJM, the nation’s largest grid, steel manufacturers absorbed millions of dollars in additional expenses simply to maintain production. When we fail to build the infrastructure required to power these facilities, we increase our reliance on higher- emitting foreign sources and jeopardize the workers and factories producing steel for our bridges, naval vessels, and industrial base.
The national-security stakes become even clearer with aluminum. The United States imports roughly 85 percent of its aluminum and is entirely dependent on foreign sources for the high-purity aluminum used in F-35 fighter jets and missiles. A multi-billion-dollar smelter project in Oklahoma stands ready to double domestic production, but its success depends on timely approvals for affordable power and river logistics. When we cannot build the infrastructure needed to supply our defense industrial base, permitting paralysis becomes a strategic vulnerability.
The constraints begin even further upstream, with raw materials themselves. Permitting and building a new mine in the United States can take nearly 30 years. Minnesota’s NewRange copper-nickel mine has spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars navigating reviews without breaking ground. In Alaska’s Ambler region, access to mineral development has been allowed in federal law for decades, yet projects remain trapped in regulatory uncertainty. We possess extraordinary resources and world class standards but increasingly struggle to couple those assets into productive capacity.
When I was a CEO in the energy industry, I saw firsthand how our broken permitting system chills project investment. Corporate boards hesitate to commit capital when permits can be delayed, litigated, or revoked after issuance, and they require higher returns to justify the risk. Now, as a U.S. Senator, I realize how widespread this problem is and the geopolitical harm it does to the country.
While America spends years reviewing and litigating whether projects can proceed, our global competitors are building industrial capacity at a speed we struggle to match. Twenty years ago, U.S. and Chinese installed electrical capacity were roughly at parity. Today, China’s capacity has nearly tripled while ours has grown by less than 20 percent. China is building the power plants, transmission networks, mines, factories, and supply chains that will underpin the 21st-century economy while America too often waits for permission.
Thankfully, we are not China. We are a nation of the people. We are a nation of innovators who are proud to take precautions to protect and restore the beautiful environment of this country. We used to be a nation of builders. However, our permitting processes have become our foes greatest strength, and the goal of our honest intentions have been lost in the morass of litigation and endless do-loops.
That widening gap is about more than economic growth. America cannot deter its adversaries with a hollowed-out industrial base or an energy system incapable of expanding at the speed modern security challenges demand. Military strength depends on domestic production, resilient supply chains, and the ability to build quickly. When delays and litigation stretch into years or decades, we are not simply slowing development; we are weakening the foundation of American readiness.
We do not want to look back in a decade and wonder how a country blessed with extraordinary resources and people allowed a bureaucracy of its own making to surrender its global competitive edge. America can lead the 21st-century economy. But first, America needs to allow itself to build again.
Alan Armstrong, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Oklahoma. He served as CEO and executive board chairman of Williams from 2011 to 2026.