A modern economy cannot function on a permitting system designed for another era. At a moment when the United States is competing for industrial dominance, energy security, and technological leadership, fixing America’s broken permitting process is a generational opportunity. If President Trump succeeds in delivering comprehensive permitting reform, it would stand as one of the most consequential structural economic achievements in modern American history, giving my home state of Ohio an opportunity at the center.
Leaders across the aisle have acknowledged that the federal permitting processes are slow and vulnerable to endless delays. Yet few have been willing to confront the never-ending dysfunction by keeping critical energy and manufacturing projects tied up for years. The Trump administration promised Americans affordable, reliable, domestic energy. Delivering permitting reform would transform that promise into a lasting legacy. By achieving meaningful reform, it would modernize the backbone of American growth. A clear signal would be sent to investors, manufacturers, and energy producers that the United States is serious about building again.
Nowhere is the urgency clearer than in Ohio, a state at the center of America’s industrial resurgence. In Ohio, households are experiencing rapidly rising utility bills as businesses confront years of uncertainty when seeking approvals for new projects. Whether the proposal involves a natural gas pipeline in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale region or construction of a major manufacturing facility, the pattern is consistent: overlapping federal reviews, shifting regulatory standards, and protracted litigation that can stretch timelines well beyond a decade.
Ohio is the seventh-largest state by population and a leading energy producer in the Midwest. Thanks to the Utica Shale, Ohio ranks among the top natural gas-producing states in the nation. Natural gas now supplies most of the in-state electricity generation, while the state’s two nuclear power plants provide roughly 15 percent of Ohio’s electricity, delivering reliable, carbon-free power around the clock.
Electricity necessity is rising at levels not seen in decades, with estimated demand rising almost 16 percent. The reshoring of manufacturing, growth in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, and the broader electrification of transportation and industry are reshaping load forecasts. Large data centers can require as much electricity as a mid-sized city. Without timely approvals for generation, pipelines, and transmission lines, supply constraints will tighten, and price volatility will increase.
Today’s framework too often fails on those counts. Extended review periods raise financing costs and deter investment, particularly for smaller developers without the resources to navigate years of procedural uncertainty. Critical mineral projects that could strengthen domestic supply chains remain stalled, even as the United States continues to rely heavily on foreign sources for materials essential to defense systems, semiconductors, batteries, and grid infrastructure. Ohio’s industrial legacy and geological assets position it to contribute to a more secure domestic supply chain, but only if projects can move forward with regulatory clarity.
Reforming this system would introduce long-overdue accountability. Enforceable timelines for environmental reviews, clearer coordination among federal agencies, reduced duplication, and reasonable limits on serial litigation would restore predictability while maintaining strong environmental standards. These are practical, bipartisan solutions aimed at ensuring that worthy projects receive a fair review and a timely decision.
For the Trump administration, this is more than a policy debate. It is a clear opportunity to fix a process that is widely acknowledged as broken and to deliver on the promise of affordable, reliable domestic energy. Expanding American energy production requires a permitting framework capable of moving projects from proposal to completion without unnecessary delay. Without reform, even abundant domestic resources will remain constrained by process.
Decisive leadership now could turn a long-standing frustration into a defining accomplishment. By prioritizing bipartisan permitting reform, setting clear legislative goals, and insisting on consistent, feasible timelines, the administration can modernize federal approvals in a way that benefits every sector of the economy. Doing so would unlock domestic production, accelerate infrastructure development, and reinforce grid reliability in states like Ohio.
The window for action will not remain open indefinitely. Seizing it would demonstrate that Washington can still address structural barriers to growth and that commitments to affordable, dependable American energy are backed by meaningful reform.
Ken Blackwell served on the Trump Transition Team in 2016 and 2024. He has served as Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio Treasurer, and Secretary of State. He currently serves as the Chair of Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute.