The Very Real Dangers of Quick Decisions
Opinion by Drew Williamson
© 2026 Williamson News Service LLC
Bypassing built-in safeguards in federal decision-making has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, damaged air quality and endangered national security.
The federal government has waived air quality standards for data centers who provide their own power and exempted the Pentagon from the competitive bidding process as part of its wide-ranging strategy to achieve goals by avoiding opposition, also known as the "Move Fast and Break Things" approach to implementing change.
Things have been broken in spectacular fashion, sometimes with dire consequences. Consider the following examples:
- A new artillery ammunition factory using untested processes has wasted more than $500 million without producing one usable 155mm shell in years of operation. https://www.propublica.org/article/general-dynamics-artillery-factory-failed The shells were intended so that Ukraine could defend itself from Russian aggression.
- At least 5 new large data centers plan to use simple-cycle gas turbines to generate power for facilities. https://www.wired.com/story/real-reason-data-center-gas-power-plants-are-so-dirty/ The simple-cycle turbines are less efficient than the combined-cycle turbines generally used by on-grid power plants. The difference is astounding: the Amazon simple-cycle data center in Texas is permitted to give off 33 million tons of greenhouse gases annually.
In both cases, the problems arose because decision-makers were trying to save money and time by avoiding federal safeguards that had been set up to avoid just these types of problems.
In the case of the ammunition factory, the Pentagon waived the competitive bidding process and neglected to do due diligence to make sure that the plant they were building could actually produce the artillery shells so desperately needed by Ukraine. Several years later it's back to the drawing boards minus more than $500 million dollars and not one usable artillery shell produced.
In the case of the data centers, the federal government waived the EPA rules for off-grid power centers to speed up the permitting and development process. The data center developers mentioned above chose to install the less efficient gas turbines because they are more readily available than the more efficient complex-cycle turbines.
The federal government has been declaring "national emergencies" and invoking the "national security" left and right to avoid public debate regarding the means to achieve desired ends.
In both cases, the means to the end have caused tremendous harm. Congress needs to rein in the executive branch of government to protect the public good.
I am a freelance writer in Arizona. My professional expertise includes newspaper reporting and editing, advertising sales and management, and investment advising and retirement planning. I have a BA in Journalism/Political Science from the UA in Tucson and a MBA in Strategic Management from ASU in Tempe. I am a proud member of the Valley of the Sun Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).