Trump Administration Seeks Permitting and NEPA Reform

On January 20, President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders and memorandums that will have significant implications for projects seeking federal permits and subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In this post we summarize key aspects of these recent actions and how they may change the project development landscape in the months and years to come.

The Trump administration’s recent decisions are largely anchored to its “America First Priorities.”[1]  These priorities include, among other things, unleashing American energy — particularly in the oil, gas and mineral extraction industries — and promoting development of critical energy infrastructure.  Other recent actions, like the “Unleashing American Energy”[2] and “Declaring a National Energy Emergency”[3] executive orders, are designed to promote these core priorities.  President Trump, for example, promptly revoked several prior executive orders that his administration believes may hamper the development of domestic energy resources.[4]

Central to achieving the Trump administration’s goals is improving, or at least simplifying, the federal permitting and environmental review processes for energy and infrastructure projects. This may come as welcome news to developers that have long raised concerns about the increasing time and costs associated with these processes. In terms of improving federal permitting processes, the Trump administration has taken the following actions:

• Demanding all agency heads immediately review existing agency actions and permitting processes — including regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements and consent orders — and suspend, revise or rescind those that may burden development of domestic energy resources or the mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.[5] 
• Authorizing agency heads to use emergency authorities to expedite adjudication of federal permits and to work closely with project sponsors to achieve permitted projects.[6]
• Directing agencies to use emergency permitting, leasing and consultation provisions — including under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA) — to facilitate domestic energy supplies.[7] 
• Eliminating “arbitrary or ideologically motivated” methodologies that go “beyond” the “legislated requirements for environmental considerations” during federal permitting adjudications or regulatory processes.[8]

In addition, the Trump administration seeks to reevaluate, and ultimately streamline, the environmental review process under NEPA.[9] A key first step is directing the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) to propose rescinding its NEPA regulations (40 C.F.R. 1500, et seq.), regulations that “purport to govern how all federal agencies must comply with [NEPA]” and which agencies (and courts) have long assumed they must obey.[10] In November 2024, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit determined the CEQ “had no lawful authority to promulgate” those regulations, rendering them “ultra vires” and unenforceable.[11] 

The CEQ is also directed to provide guidance for implementing NEPA and then convene a working group to coordinate the revision of agency-level NEPA regulations with the specific goals of ensuring inter-agency consistency, expediting permitting approvals and meeting NEPA streamlining deadlines established in 42 U.S.C. Section 4336a, as amended by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (Public Law 118-5). Separately, the National Economic Council (NEC) and Office of Legislative Affairs are directed to prepare legislative fixes to streamline the permitting for critical infrastructure and provide greater certainty in the federal permitting process, including streamlining judicial review under NEPA.  

It remains to be seen what specific legislative, regulatory and administrative fixes the new Trump administration proposes to achieve these ambitious goals. Stay tuned to this space for further updates as we monitor how the administration’s energy and environmental priorities are actualized in the months and years to come.