- Money is not physical stuff: Just because you earmark money for a project doesn’t mean it will get built. Permitting, land use, and development regulations can hold up the process for years, and cost overruns can lead to inadequate physical projects.
- NIMBYism: NIMBYs are holding up solar and wind projects, transmission lines, and housing construction due to their intrusions on scenic views and taking up a lot of space.
- Supply-chain snags: The Biden administration’s crackdown on sourcing from China has caused supply-chain snags and long waits to connect to the grid.
- Cost overruns: The Second Avenue Subway line is an order of magnitude more costly per mile than similar projects in Europe due to overuse of expensive consultants, overly large train stations, and poor coordination and pork-barrel spending by other city agencies.
- Environmental review laws: California’s extra-strict environmental review law (CEQA) is being abused by local supporters of physical stasis to prevent housing construction.
- TSMC: The Taiwanese company that recently agreed to build a big plant in Arizona is running into major cost issues due to construction costs being 4 to 5x greater for US fabs versus a fab in Taiwan.
Published February 27, 2023
Visit Noahpinion to read Noah Smith’s original post The Build-Nothing Country
