Trump pledges to speed permitting for companies investing over $1 billion
Summary
But it isn’t clear whether a U.S. president would have legal authority to bypass permitting and environmental rules.
President-elect Donald Trump said his administration would speed the approval of big construction projects for companies that invest more than $1 billion, signaling his intention to push the limits of federal law to boost the economy.
In a post on his social-media site, Truth Social, Trump said Tuesday that any person or company investing $1 billion or more in the U.S. “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals."
Permitting changes have garnered bipartisan support in Washington in recent years. Backers of clean-energy projects have bemoaned the lengthy process to get permits for transmission projects seen as essential to achieve goals to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. Oil-and-gas companies have complained it hinders their ability to build infrastructure.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to “drill baby drill" and lower energy costs for Americans by 50%. It isn’t clear whether a U.S. president would have legal authority to bypass permitting and environmental rules. Efforts to negate or diminish rules such as the Clean Water Act can involve years of court battles that often land at the Supreme Court.
“What authority does he have to waive these rules based upon the size of the financial investment?" said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy group. “That doesn’t make any sense."
Some federal permitting agencies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are independent of executive authority, experts said. Any broad effort to bypass federal environmental and permitting authority wouldn’t succeed without Congressional action, they said. Big projects also face state and local environmental and permitting oversight.
“Trump has real-world experience in permitting and building projects," said Andrew Wheeler, who served as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency in Trump’s first term. “He knows how it can spur the economy and create jobs."
Trump has said he would consolidate energy policy oversight in the White House.
He plans to create a National Energy Council that he said would include federal departments involved in permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation of American energy.
The council would “oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE…by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation," Trump said in a statement in November.
Trump tapped North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican he has nominated as interior secretary, to chair the council. It would also include Trump’s nominee for Energy Secretary, oil-and-gas executive Chris Wright. Burgum, a close ally of Cramer’s, would also have a seat on the National Security Council.
“The National Energy Council will foster an unprecedented level of coordination among federal agencies to advance American energy," Burgum said in a statement accepting his nomination to run the Interior Department.
Trump said during his campaign that he would declare a national-energy emergency to boost domestic supplies and reduce electricity prices. He also promised to repeal climate legislation the Biden administration completed in 2022.
Broad Republican support for the climate law, including a number of members in the House of Representatives, means it is unlikely that Trump will have the support on Capitol Hill to repeal the law.
Write to Scott Patterson at scott.patterson@wsj.com
