NAM’s Mike Davin Talks Manufacturing Priorities on Podcast

Permitting reform, reliable power sources and what’s next for U.S. energy were the topics of the day on a recent episode of the GPA Midstream Association’s “Let’s Clear the Air” podcast featuring NAM Director of Energy and Resources Policy Mike Davin.

What’s going on: “Under the previous administration, we saw what we call an onslaught of regulatory activity,” Davin told show hosts Stuart Saulters, Adam Murray and Bryan Nix on the episode titled “Peanut Butter, Steel and Semiconductors Share the Same Problem with NAM’s Mike Davin.”

“[W]ith this new administration, we’ve seen a lot of great progress and appreciate their focus and emphasis on the regulatory landscape.”
But revising the process by which manufacturers obtain permits for their energy and infrastructure projects—and shortening the length of time it takes—is a continued NAM priority, Davin said, and one on which the organization, in collaboration with legislators, continues to work.

Energy dominance: “When President Trump came in, he set up the National Energy Dominance Council—really putting an emphasis on not just energy security or energy independence, but energy dominance,” Davin said.

Its goal is “to unleash our members to be able to produce, to be able to use, to be able to contribute to a more energy-secure country. Because if we’re able to control our destiny with energy, that helps us address problems or challenges … with data center growth, greater utilization of artificial intelligence.”
To achieve that dominance as well as dominance in AI, Davin went on, the NAM has said we need four “pillars”: permitting reform; increased energy production and efficiency; grid reliability, affordability and resiliency; and the right regulatory environment.

What’s next? With investments in workforce development and forward movement on permitting reform in 2026, “the sky’s the limit” for where manufacturers in the U.S. could be a year from now, Davin said.

In January 2027, “I would love to come back and say, ‘We got what we needed and now we’re rolling up our sleeves and we’re getting to work.’”