Highlights

• Eric Boehm argues China’s rare earth dominance stems from U.S. regulatory friction: American mines take 7–10 years to permit versus about 2 years in Canada/Australia, with total timelines reaching up to 29 years from discovery to production.
• The bottleneck isn’t geology or capital—it’s execution. Projects like Round Top, Texas, have languished since the 1980s, with layered federal/state approvals adding over $1 billion in development costs.
• Boehm’s contrarian take: streamlining permitting and reducing regulatory velocity—not industrial policy or subsidies—is the key to unlocking domestic rare earth supply and closing the gap with China.

A new argument from Eric Boehm (Reason Magazine (opens in a new tab), April 2026) reframes the rare earth debate: China’s dominance may be less about industrial strategy—and more about U.S. regulatory friction.

According to Boehm, the United States once led global rare earth production but lost that position as permitting timelines stretched into decades. Today, it takes 7–10 years to permit a mine in the U.S., versus roughly two years in Canada or Australia. More striking, an S&P Global analysis found U.S. mines can take nearly 29 years from discovery to production, among the longest globally.

The Real Bottleneck: Time, Not Geology

The implication is clear: America’s constraint is not resource scarcity—it’s execution. Projects like Round Top in Texas have been in development since the 1980s, still awaiting full-scale production. Layered federal and state approvals, duplicative reviews, and legal risk have added over $1 billion in development costs to major projects.

A Contrarian Policy Take

Boehm challenges the prevailing narrative that industrial policy or subsidies alone will solve the problem. Instead, he argues that streamlining permitting—not picking winners—could unlock domestic supply.

Bottom Line

For investors and policymakers, this is a critical lens according to this traditionally conservative argument: the U.S. rare earth gap may be less about capital and geology—and more about regulatory velocity.

Source: Eric Boehm, “China’s Rare-Earth Dominance Was Made in America,” Reason Magazine, April 2026