S1 E33 – Emily Domenech: The average time to get a mine fully permitted is 29 years.

Dustin Olsen (00:40)
Everyone, welcome to the Rare Earth Exchanges podcast. I'm joined today by Emily Domenech who is with the permitting council for the federal government here in the United States. And we're super excited to have her here and talk about some of all that that goes on and just getting projects started. So Emily, thank you for joining the show. How are you today?

Emily Domenech (01:01)
I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me. I'm always excited to get a chance to talk about critical minerals and all the things we're doing to get shovels and dirt around.

Dustin Olsen (01:08)
That's awesome. Well, awesome. So to kind of get us started, we would love just to hear a bit of your background as the executive director for the permitting council and what some of your responsibilities are there.

Emily Domenech (01:19)
Yeah, so I took on the role as executive director. I've been on staff for almost two months now, was appointed by President Trump to take on this job. So I'm new to the permitting council, but not new to the permitting world. I spent a little over a decade on Capitol Hill ⁓ in senior leadership roles for the Speaker of the House and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. I've worked on permitting reform for many, many years.

helped negotiate the NEPA reform changes that were included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act and a number of other pieces of legislation in that space, and spent a little time before that working for the governor of Texas, so have some experience on the state government side of the coin as well. So really excited to be taking on this role with the Permitting Council, where we really serve as the sherpa for large projects navigating federal permitting.

It's exciting to go from being on the legislative side to being on the sort of executing the agenda side, which is really what this job entails.

Dustin Olsen (02:17)
That is awesome. with your experience from Capitol Hill to the private sector, how would you say that has shaped your perspective or your viewpoint on permitting projects and infrastructure? What are those challenges like here in the US?

Emily Domenech (02:31)
Yeah, I mean, think in my experience, and I think many of the people who work in this industry have the same, ⁓ is that oftentimes the federal government is the largest impediment to getting things built in the United States. That is backwards and frankly puts us in a position where we are always going to be on our back foot when competing with the rest of the world, particularly countries like China, who have the ability to really charge ahead and invest heavily and build quickly to compete with the United States.

So I have always approached this issue as ⁓ the number one thing we have to do is get the federal government out of the way and have the federal government instead be a partner for major developers who want to make investments in the United States. I say a lot that the permitting industry is very anecdotal. We all have our horror stories about the sort of worst story we've heard about delays and all of the red tape that's involved in trying to get things built. And we really need to get back to a place where we're looking at

good data, we're analyzing where the the kinks are in the system, we're looking for opportunities to streamline those processes and move things forward in a transparent, predictable way that gives product developers the ability to plan, the ability to get investment so that they can build here in the United States, and some certainty that the federal government will stick to its word and actually execute things on time. I think we really do need to think.

really about how we make the default position of the federal government getting to yes on a permit as opposed to endless delay. That really is what makes it difficult for folks to make investments in United States. And one of the things that's so exciting about being a part of the Trump administration is that President Trump truthfully really wants to lean in on using every tool we have in the toolbox to be able to get things built here in the United States. And so it's exciting to be able to be at the forefront of that effort.

Dustin Olsen (04:18)
Yeah, that's, that is something we give President Trump some credit is he, is doing the things to change and, and try and move things forward, which is exciting. And you kind of, you said something is like the federal government is probably one of the biggest impediments to projects getting permitted. Is there any particular reason why that's the case? What, what, what is one of probably the biggest challenges that some domestic projects are facing and just getting permitted?

Emily Domenech (04:44)
Yeah, I think there's a number of reasons that end up with the federal government being the hurdle instead of the helper. I think number one is we frankly stray too far from the core principles and purpose of our bedrock environmental laws. I use NEPA as an example. There's no reason we should have an eight or 12 page environmental law that leads to thousands of pages of implementing regulations at dozens of agencies.

That doesn't make any sense. as somebody who spent over a decade on Capitol Hill, I really have a strong belief in the Article I authority of Congress. Congress tells us what to do. We should be able to follow the law without adding massive piles of paperwork and additional regulations to help people comply with those laws. I think the other part of it is that sometimes these laws were written 40 years ago. NEPA, for example, when we moved the reforms included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act,

Those were the first reforms to NEPA in over 40 years. I'm 41 years old. We shouldn't have laws that haven't been updated in 40, in my lifetime. I think it's possible that we need to look at ways to streamline those laws and bring them into the 21st century by incorporating things like technology tools and AI to help us better streamline these processes and, and allow for project developers to get to come to the table and access the massive amounts of data that the federal government has when they're planning and preparing for a project or a project application.

We do far too much in the sort of paper, like ink and paper world, when we should be thinking about ways to make this process sort of move at the speed of AI and technology that we see today. I think the last is that we unfortunately have a culture of delay in the federal government that also often lends itself to the sort of default position being, well, we can always do one more study. We could always hire one more biologist. We could always continue to look at this issue.

and there'll always be new data. That's true in any field of science, but for permitting, frankly, at some point we have to be able to have policy makers who can draw the line and say, hey, look, we've looked at the available data, we've asked the developer to do the environmental mitigation that is necessary, and we need to be able to say yes to this permit. So I think some of this is just getting a cultural change where again, the default position should be yes, and if we need to do environmental mitigation along the way, lucky for us, we have…

incredible resources and an incredible track record here in this country for doing things in environmentally responsible ways. So let's incorporate that, get our project developer a permit and move on with our lives.

Dustin Olsen (07:11)
Wow. It is so refreshing to hear you say that and to leverage modern technology because it really can help accelerate things. So with all that, it all sounds great. Like the idea of incorporating and leveraging technology and being the helper rather than the deterrent. What would you say are some recent wins that you've had in this role and trying to change things?

Emily Domenech (07:33)
Yeah, so I'll take maybe a step back and talk a little bit about the role of the permitting council. know, again, we in a perfect world, the permitting council wouldn't need to exist because all of our federal government permitting processes would be transparent and they talk to each other and we'd have a good open transparent process, but we know that doesn't exist. so the permitting council, which was established about a decade ago, really exists to take these large projects and serve as the Sherpa to get you through that process. So we meet with the project developer, we coordinate between the lead agencies.

We post a public timeline for when all of the steps to get a federal permit and a number of federal permits should be done so a project knows in theory, it knows when it's supposed to get fully permitted. And then we hold everybody accountable. So somebody from my team with every single project on our dashboard helps to talk to every agency that's involved, to every field rep, to every regional rep to make sure things are moving the way they should. So let's thinking about the permitting council's role.

We've seen this White House and President Trump really lean into this capability that we have here at the permitting council We have over doubled our number the number of projects that are in the portfolio So we've gone from you know, we now have 70 projects on the dashboard. We've listed 28 mining projects on our transparency dashboard just in the last few months

We've put eight new covered projects on the dashboard. So every single one of those projects is one that is now getting both the transparency function of FAS 41 and the permitting council, but also the help that we offer to help navigate through the federal permitting process. A couple of those projects, and this is where I think it's really exciting to see, it's all well and good to put projects on the dashboard, but we wanna see them getting to finishing federal permitting.

And in some cases of those 28 mining projects that we've listed, we've already had three that completed federal permitting. Some of those projects had been waiting for permits for almost a decade and simply listing that on our dashboard, giving them that transparency and priority from the White House allowed us to sort of encourage our folks in the field offices to move forward. So one of the ones that I like to talk about a little bit is the Aqualoc Pit Exploration and Expansion Project at the Red Dog Mine in Alaska.

⁓ That's one that is an existing mine and it needed an additional layer of permits in order to expand its mining of zinc, one of those critical minerals that's important for galvanizing steel. We were able to get that expansion instead of it waiting for seven years for the Army Corps to prioritize it and put it at the top of the list. We were able to get that done in a matter of months and they can move forward with that mine expansion effort. So that's the kind of thing that we think we can bring to the table with the transparency of FAST-41.

with having somebody on deck to help you get things moving. And it's really exciting to see us expand this authority and really use it, I think how Congress intended it.

Dustin Olsen (10:22)
That is amazing. So to make sure that I understand what you just said is without this transparency that this dashboard that you have projects were taking years, almost a decade just to get approved. But now that people can see it and it's a top of mind, that process was shrunk down to just a matter of months or what, what's that timeline look like?

Emily Domenech (10:42)
That…

Yeah, so we're still gathering data because again, we just started listing. There was only one mining project on the FAST-41 dashboard in the previous administration. We've now taken that number up into the mid-30s and we're adding mining projects by the day. So we're really collecting data on how well this works. But in the case of our transparency projects, many of them were either exploration permits or they were looking to do expansion efforts like that project, the Red Dog Mine.

⁓ And in those cases, frankly, the field offices for the various federal agencies involved in permitting were just not prioritizing those actions. So while they might have gotten to them eventually, oftentimes developers were waiting for months and sometimes years to get those even smaller permits moved forward. So in some cases, just the action of us saying, this mine is a priority, has put it at the top of the pile, and then the actual workload hasn't been as significant as people imagined.

So some of it really is just shining a light on some of these projects that have been stuck for a very long time. It sounds silly, but it really does work. The second thing I'd say too is the coordinating function of the permitting council can help stop a lot of delays. The average time to get a mine fully permitted in America right now is 29 years. That's the average. We're looking to take that average down to three years.

because we're going to try to coordinate between all of the agencies involved and give those mining companies some certainty so that they can raise capital and move through the permitting process. yeah, 29 years, crazy. There's no reason anything should ever take that long. And some of that just means coordinating and planning. So instead of things happening one after another in the slowest possible way, we're lining things up, doing as many things in parallel as we can to shrink that timeline overall. And frankly, again, like get to the point where we're breaking ground on these projects.

Dustin Olsen (12:34)
Wow, 29 years, like that number's almost, that's almost double the time I've heard it takes just to get a mind operational. just like, I could imagine waiting around 29 years. I'd be like, I'm retired. I'm retired.

Emily Domenech (12:36)
I know, it's crazy, right? ⁓

It doesn't make any sense. Well,

and when you talk to folks in the mining industry, you often find that they've been working on individual projects for multiple decades because it takes so long to get through the permitting process that it's really difficult to raise capital. And I think that's kind of when we think big picture about how different administrations approach these problems.

I think what you'll see from Republicans as we try really hard to deal with what we see as the root causes for these delays and the root causes for challenges in getting projects built, oftentimes the thing that's making it hard for someone to raise private capital is the regulatory burden that's placed on a project by the federal government. We want to fix that regulatory burden rather than just throw money at the problem. Private capital is going to come if we give them some certainty and accountability.

Dustin Olsen (13:30)
Matt, you said that so well. yes. Now that, wow, you sound that out. think there was, there's probably some like common misconceptions and struggles, right? With when it comes to permitting. And I think you addressed some of those really well, which is awesome. Cause yeah, if, if a mine or a project can get funded, then the private capital that's needed to help.

Emily Domenech (13:33)
Thank you. I'm passionate about permitting. love getting a chance to talk about it.

Dustin Olsen (13:54)
kind of things at the next level will naturally come. But if it's just not there, it's just, it is a waste of an investment.

Emily Domenech (13:59)
Right, can throw

all the money at a problem we want, but if we don't fix that root cause of delay, then we're never gonna be able to fix the system. And I think our goal is to really fix the system. also, again, we have all these talented folks who work in the federal government, who are passionate about getting projects built. My team is full of folks who have experience at the Army Corps and BLM and…

the national marine fisheries agencies and many other places, they're passionate about getting projects built. They want to do it in an environmentally responsible way. But oftentimes they are met with other folks in the field who have been taught that delays don't matter. And we have to change the way we think about this if we're ever going to really effectively develop our own resources here in this country and compete with China.

And the reality is for the folks who are concerned about us going faster and how that could maybe negatively impact the environment. If we go too slow, this is just going to be done by China. And China doesn't care about the environment. And they don't have a very good track record about protecting it in their long-term investments. We do. So let's do it responsibly and quickly here in the United States.

Dustin Olsen (15:06)
Yep. Yeah, I totally agree. And I would say that is also a misconception too, from just the general public of if, if we don't figure this out, if we can't get a plan in place that allows domestic companies to start their projects in a more timely fashion, where are you going to go? You're going to go somewhere else. And right now China is the place that has the infrastructure and the capabilities to do it. We're trying to get started.

or restart for that matter because we offshored so much over the last several decades. So I think that's awesome. to kind of talk about you, you talk about other inter-agencies here in the United States, your connections there, your experience in those, is the preliminary council bridging gaps and helping things move across the line or do you feel things are still pretty siloed in that trying to

get other agencies to work together is still just part of the burden that you're trying to overcome.

Emily Domenech (15:58)
The permitting council definitely plays a role in coordinating between agencies. In fact, we often talk about the transparency dashboard and how valuable it is, but I actually think the most valuable thing we do is that when you come in as a covered project under FAS 41, within 60 days, we have to coordinate a meeting that includes your lead permitting agency.

all of the identified cooperating agencies, the project developer, any states or tribal governments that also could be cooperating agencies, we bring them all together and then we work out within 60 days we are required to come up with that permitting timetable for that project. So that coordinating function, that convening function that the permitting council plays is really critical to identifying those agencies upfront so you don't end up in a situation where you find out two years into your project that actually

you need to do two other permits. That's one of the things we find a lot when we meet with project developers. They'll have done their initial scoping and they'll say, know, we think we've got a Bureau of Land Management permit we need and we might need, you know, something from the Army Corps, but that's it. And then we find out along the way that, you know, actually you also have Fish and Wildlife Service. You also have something that is hooked in from the EPA. And we can figure that out at the front end and then get as many of those reviews to run in parallel as possible.

so that we don't waste time or frankly redo the same kinds of biological studies that could be needed for both sets of permits. So I really do think that coordinating role is a huge part of what we do at the Permitting Council. And truthfully is part of why, you we have a, for our covered projects, we have a $200 million investment threshold to be a qualifying project under FAST-41. It's part of why I really think that threshold needs to be lowered by Congress because I think we could help many more projects.

just with that coordinating function and transparency on the front end to move things more quickly.

Dustin Olsen (17:48)
Yeah, sounds like if anyone's trying to get a project permit, they need to become friends with you guys.

Emily Domenech (17:53)
They absolutely do. We are standing

by ready to help. that's I'm glad you brought that up because a lot of times people think of us as only working in the energy space or, you we obviously have really leaned in on critical minerals and mining in the last several months. But, you know, our statue, we're able to serve 19 sectors. That includes things like, you we were just included in the AI infrastructure executive order by the president. We're going to fast track a bunch of projects for data centers. We have the ability to do manufacturing.

We have the ability to do ⁓ ports and waterways and many other projects that sort of fit in this traditional infrastructure space. So oftentimes, I spend a lot of time telling people, yes, come talk to the permitting council. We are here to serve you. If you're one of our 19 sectors, chances are we can help you be more successful. And lastly, I'd say, you asked, is there still this of siloed resistance among agencies?

Certainly that exists because it is something that just, this is institutional, right? We have these hundred year old agencies who have been operating in their own silo for a long time. But one of the things that's really great, and I think part of why you've seen this administration lean in on the permitting council in a way that the previous administration did not, my counterparts on the permitting council when we convene our meetings are the deputy secretaries at every agency that's on our council.

I know that every single one of those deputy secretaries who was appointed by President Trump wants to get things built. But they're managing a department and they have a lot of other things to do and they don't have the time to meet with a project developer every day. I do and I can pick up the phone and call them and say, hey, can you help me get this moving? And I know the answer is going to be yes. So I think that some of that cultural change starts at the top and we have to be able to carry it down into the field. And I think the permitting council serves as sort of a, can bridge the gap between the people who are working.

down in the field offices and the folks in Washington.

Dustin Olsen (19:35)
Yeah, that's incredible. And probably still an uphill battle, trying to bridge some of those gaps, but just having someone that like you and your team that can help make the phone calls and help get things organized is probably a breath of fresh air. I can only imagine. Just the amount of frustration that's probably lowered just by working with your team closely is awesome. So just to shift gears just a little bit. So.

What in your estimation, what is the intersection between rare earth elements, critical minerals and the US defense and clean energy initiatives?

Emily Domenech (20:12)
Yeah, I mean, think obviously these are very interconnected industries and we need to be thinking holistically about how we develop our natural resources for an abundance of purposes. think, you know, we often, I think people forget that really the strength of the United States is in our natural resources. It's part of what has made us a great and prosperous country for our whole history. And we need to be able to take advantage of the resources we have and develop them responsibly. But that means thinking about

the whole supply chain. It doesn't do any good to open a mine in Alaska if you don't have anywhere to process it in the United States and you have to ship it to China or somewhere else in Asia and then ship it back. That's not good for the environment. That's not good for our supply chain security. And it's not good for our economic prosperity. It adds costs for the consumers. So we need to be thinking really about that sort of long-term supply chain development.

And I think that's something we're seeing from our colleagues at the Pentagon. I won't pretend to speak for them, because I know they're working aggressively in this area, but thinking through how do we go from identifying a resource, a critical mineral resource, identifying potential purposes, both uses and end uses, both in the private sector when it comes to batteries or semiconductors or other ⁓ things that incorporate critical minerals, or defense purposes.

And then how do we coordinate between making sure that project can get permitted and built and lining up buyers at the other end? We're really trying to build those relationships that we have with the folks over at the Pentagon to be thinking through when, some of these things are actually connected and we need to be thinking, hey, while this permitting timeline is building, are you also permitting the manufacturing facility at the same time? Are you also lining up a resource purchase agreement?

at the back end so that that mine can be prosperous once it's finally open. All of those things kind of need to happen simultaneously. And I think, you know, again, I think the good thing we're seeing in this administration is really thinking through how we think of these things as a system and a system of projects and a system of efforts as opposed to individual pieces that might happen to line up at the right time. So from our standpoint on the permitting side,

We're really thinking about how do we think about permitting both the mine and the processing elements at the same time so that they can be ready to go at the same time and provide those critical materials to the Pentagon and others as they're looking to meet our national security needs.

Dustin Olsen (22:38)
that because we've reported a handful of times at our website that without critical minerals, without rare earths, a lot of these initiatives for defense and clean energy kind of just come to a halt because even though they play a small part, you need them like they're vital to to those initiatives, to the products that are being developed. Right. And so having the permitting process streamlined

or more transparent. Sounds like it would help everyone involved, as you said, like there's a lot of that interconnectivity, a lot of reliance in and around all of these. ⁓

Emily Domenech (23:11)
Yeah, and

I just add to that like for the Pentagon, for the buyer at the other end, they need some certainty on when these products are gonna be available for them. You know, don't wanna have a large defense initiative that's reliant on a natural resources that isn't gonna be ready because some other part of the federal government took too long. So I think some of it is, and again, I give a lot of credit to the folks at the…

the NSC and the National Energy Dominance Council for really thinking about the whole system and connecting those dots between your defense buyers, your high tech buyers, the Department of Commerce is really engaged when it comes to the investment accelerator side on manufacturing. Getting all of those things to think about how do we all plan together as a group as opposed to independently in our own little silo.

I think that's a huge change in thought process and it's something this White House is doing very well.

Dustin Olsen (24:03)
That's awesome. That is great to hear. So out of curiosity, and you can say you can't answer this, but the Department of Defense deal that they made with MP Materials, the mine out of California, the Mountain Pass mine, did the permitting council have anything to do with that and accelerate or giving the assurance to the Department of Defense that they can make that deal?

Emily Domenech (24:20)
So I will say I personally was not engaged in that deal negotiation, but that may be a part of the fact that I've only been here for about six weeks. So I'm new to this agreement, but I will say we work very closely with the staff in the White House who helps to lead that effort. And we are locked in with trying to get as many projects permitted as possible. So I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up being involved in that project in one way, shape or form in the future.

Dustin Olsen (24:45)
Very cool. Now, you made a comment earlier about our supply chain health. know, we can mine it, but we need to be able to also process it, right? So in your estimation, are we moving fast enough to reduce the dependence on China in the sector? If not, what do you think's missing?

Emily Domenech (25:02)
I'd say absolutely we are not. I think we need to again think quickly what can we build in the next four years and how do we treat this as frankly what I would consider to be the emergency that it is. That means not just thinking about building the manufacturing capacity but also building the power to ensure that we can operate those factories. I think it's very similar to the way that we've approached AI.

where we have to think about the whole, can't just fast track building data centers, we need to fast track building the power production and transmission required to keep that data center online. I think the same is true for manufacturing, where we need to be thinking about the processing and supply chain elements of the project just as much as we're thinking about that natural resource. We're really focused on the mining right now because I think that's the thing that's.

that has frankly faced the longest sort of institutional resistance in this country. You're far more likely to have a radical environmentalist sue you over a mine than you are over a factory. But frankly, both projects face the same problems that large infrastructure projects face in this country, which is just, it's too long to get something built. again, I think we're thinking in the right way. We're also seeing lots of developers come to us.

with projects that incorporate both pieces. I'll give you an example. We listed a project called Hell's Kitchen in California. It's a geothermal energy project that's pulling lithium out of its geothermal brine. It's going to build a lithium processing facility on site to be powered by that geothermal energy. And then they're also going to look at a number of other manufacturing processes that they can build around this power source. I think we're going to see a trend towards projects like that where you have, hey,

We're building a large power source. We're making the investment to get a certain number of gigawatts online. That means we need to be thinking, what are we gonna do with it? Are we gonna power a data center? Are we gonna power manufacturing? And let's permit all of it at the beginning so that we don't end up building this great power plant and then waiting around for somebody to bring a manufacturing plant online. Let's do it at the same time. So I think people are really recognizing that there's a moment in this administration where, like I said,

Every single head of every agency wants to help you get stuff built. like, let's take advantage of it. We've got, you know, hopefully the next administration shares this desire and passion for building things in America, but we can't count on it. That's the way our political system works. So we need to get as many things built as we can in the next three years. And I think that sort of systemic approach is how, thinking of things as a system of projects, as opposed to individual projects is really how we solve it.

Dustin Olsen (27:30)
That's awesome. you brought up something. So I have two questions left and then we'll kind of wrap this up. first one is we talked to, we try to publish to retail investors and kind of give them signals of things that they could look for if they want to put their money somewhere. And we've seen a lot of interest in investors wanting to be a part of this on shoring of rare earth mining and production refining, things like that. In your opinion, what sort of signals

could they look for in terms of new policy that would say, we're moving in the right direction. This is something you could kind of put your money behind. Do you see anything like that?

Emily Domenech (28:05)
me.

Yeah, I I'd say we're doing it already. think we're we've seen, you know, there's obviously been several executive orders focused on American energy and American critical minerals. I think we've seen efforts to expand our mining production to things like deep sea mining, which is, you know, sort of an innovative territory that we have never done here in the United States. We're looking to really tap into all the resources we have and also look for opportunities to use that emergency authority. Certainly, I would say if you see a project

that's on the permitting council's dashboard, that's a good indication that it's a priority project for this administration, particularly in the mining space. And I encourage folks to meet with them. But I'd also say, be talking to folks at the other agencies named in some of those executive orders. Like I said, the Department of Commerce's investment accelerator is really, really interested in partnering with investors to find ways to really maximize our investment. The same is true for the Department of Defense and their various funding streams that are available.

to these projects but you know my goal and my job in this story is really to get things built as quickly as possible and ensure that permitting uncertainty is not the thing stopping investors from investing in the United States. I'm certainly not an expert in telling you how to how to invest your money but I can tell you how to get permits and that's what I'm here to do.

Dustin Olsen (29:21)
Awesome. Well, my last question is to ask you if you would, if you could put everything into perspective, maybe give some advice to investors or developers. What would you say? And I think you already said that, you know, go look at the dashboard, pay attention to what the permitting council is involved in. It's a good sign we're headed in the right direction and that these companies, these projects will be come soon enough at an investable state. would you agree with that quick summary?

Emily Domenech (29:44)
Yeah, I think that's absolutely right in the critical minerals space. ⁓ You know, again, the president has really made this a priority. We would love to meet with you. We'd love to help connect you ⁓ to, know, particularly for developers, please come talk to us. There's lots of ways that we can engage and help you move your project forward. And again, we want to grow to the point where we have to start hiring more staff, which is almost the place we're at. So we're excited to work with all of you and to get these projects moving forward.

I'd also say that we can really serve as sort of a clearinghouse for you in engaging with other agencies too, because of the nature of the council, we have really great points of contact with other folks like the Department of Commerce or the Department of Defense who might be good partners for you on the investment side. So on the developer side, come work with me. I'll help you get your project built, help you get a permit and point you in the right direction to work on your financing.

Dustin Olsen (30:34)
That was awesome. Emily, thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. And to everyone who's listening, I would just say, if you found this episode helpful, give us a thumbs up and it'll help the show get some more visibility. If you don't want to miss a future show, subscribe to the channel and we'll be back next week with another episode. Emily, thank you for coming. Your insight has been awesome. It is very encouraging to hear all of this coming up ⁓ from the federal government side that you guys are active. You guys are doing.

all that you possibly can to accelerate these initiatives. So thank you so much.

Emily Domenech (31:07)
Yeah, happy to be here and happy to help work with you and your listeners to get more things built. We're excited. Thanks so much.

Dustin Olsen (31:13)
Absolutely. Cool. Thank you. And hopefully

we'll have you again on the show and talk about some improvements or updates to everything that you've been working on.

Emily Domenech (31:21)
Awesome, I'll be glad to be back.

Dustin Olsen (31:22)
Okay, thanks Emily, we'll talk to you soon.

Emily Domenech (31:24)
Thanks, bye bye.