President Donald Trump signed a memorandum to speed up the permitting process for energy and infrastructure projects by bolstering the technology used in issuing environmental reviews.
It was the latest step from the Trump administration to try to ease the construction of energy and manufacturing projects, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said existing rules make it too costly and time-consuming to build.
In the memorandum signed Tuesday, Trump called on all federal agencies to “make maximum use of technology” in the environmental review and permitting process for all kinds of infrastructure projects.
It specifically calls on agencies to eliminate the use of paper-based application and review processes, accelerate processing time, reduce the length of documents related to applications, increase the accessibility of such documents, improve transparency of permitting schedules, and more.
“The Government does not properly leverage technology to effectively and efficiently evaluate environmental permits, causing significant delays to important infrastructure projects that impact our economic well-being. This will now change,” the directive says.
The order builds upon the president’s promise to bolster infrastructure projects and manufacturing across key sectors, such as energy and technology.
Trump touted his permitting reform efforts Tuesday morning and praised Nvidia’s plans to build $500 billion worth of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
“All necessary permits will be expedited and quickly delivered to NVIDIA, as they will to all companies committing to be part of the Golden Age of America!” he said in a Truth Social post.
The president’s order calls on the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality to issue a Permitting Technology Action Plan for all agencies within 45 days. CEQ was established in 1969 under the National Environmental Policy Act and aims to advise the president on environmental policy while ensuring federal agencies follow the bedrock law.
For decades, NEPA has required federal agencies to study the environmental effects of infrastructure projects, including transmission lines, highways, pipelines, and more. These environmental reviews must be conducted under the law in order to obtain necessary permits for construction.
In an effort to speed up this key step of the permitting process, Trump ordered that CEQ’s action plan include an initial data and technology standard for permit applications and reviews required under NEPA.
The order is also expected to include requirements for technology used to expedite applications and reviews and a road map for enhancing interagency coordination.
Agencies must then implement the plan within 90 days of its release.
The order also calls on the CEQ chairman to establish and lead an interagency Permitting Innovation Center that would design and test tools to better implement the permitting action plan for reviews and environmental permits required under NEPA.
However, while trying to speed up the permitting process, the Trump administration has also created hurdles for itself.
The memo issues two directives to the chairman of CEQ, but the president has not yet nominated someone for that position.
CEQ is currently being led by acting Chairwoman Katherine Scarlett, who joined the agency in January as chief of staff, the position next in line to lead when there is no chairman.
Additionally, reports revealed Tuesday that CEQ ordered federal agencies to rescind existing rules on implementing NEPA and replace them with nonbinding recommendations.
This seemingly reversed CEQ’s interim final rule issued in February on removing existing NEPA regulations. While the intent of the rule was to remove all past regulations issued by CEQ regarding the implementation of the law, it gave agencies one year to comply.
In the rule, CEQ requested the departments revise their own NEPA implementation procedures no later than 12 months after receiving the week’s memo. At the time, CEQ recommended agencies continue relying on past regulations as they were still required to conduct environmental reviews for projects under NEPA.
CEQ’s new order appears to do away with that guidance.
Multiple sources confirmed to Inside EPA that CEQ began issuing the directive to agencies this month.
The initial rule issued in February by CEQ was praised as a positive step toward a quicker permitting and environmental review process, but the sudden change left many industry experts confused.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Thomas Hochman, director of infrastructure policy at the Foundation for American Innovation, told the Washington Examiner.
Aidan Mackenzie, an infrastructure fellow with the Institute for Progress, said in an X post that converting existing agency regulations into nonbinding guidance would create more uncertainty and open the door to further litigation — the opposite of what permitting reform advocates have pushed for.
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“The process for converting current regs into guidance will get sued, requiring notice and comment and years of litigation … taking time away from reform,” Mackenzie said.
The White House did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
