Trump administration to fast-track fossil fuels and mining on public lands

The Trump administration has announced that it will use emergency authorities to rapidly increase the pace of approving fossil fuel and mining projects on public lands.

The Interior Department announced late Wednesday that it will drastically cut down timelines for environmental reviews of projects that produce coal, oil, gas, uranium and other minerals.

It will also shorten the timeline for climate-friendly power sources like geothermal and hydropower, but wind and solar are notably absent from the list of fast-tracked projects.

The Interior Department will initiate what it described as an “alternative” process to typical environmental reviews, which recent laws limited to one or two years but have historically taken several years.

Now, projects will be analyzed in either 14 or 28 days, according to a press release from the department.

The department is also curtailing Endangered Species Act consultations, saying that such consultations only need to occur once President Trump’s energy emergency declaration is lifted.

“The United States cannot afford to wait,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a written statement.

“We are cutting through unnecessary delays to fast-track the development of American energy and critical minerals—resources that are essential to our economy, our military readiness, and our global competitiveness,” he added. 

Environmental advocates, meanwhile, said that shortening these reviews could have serious consequences.

“These arbitrary time limits make a complete review of the risks of potentially hazardous projects impossible,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, in a written statement. 

“A shoddy review means the true hazards of a project may only be known when the air or water thousands of people rely on is dangerously polluted. Just remember, Donald Trump and his allies are willing to take that risk if it means padding the bottom line of billionaires and corporate polluters,” he added.

The moves follow Trump’s executive order that declared an energy emergency, which his team said would unlock additional powers to jumpstart energy production.

That emergency similarly excluded wind and solar in its definition of energy — and the Interior Department recently ordered an offshore wind project to stop construction, alleging that the Biden administration “rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”