Utah’s economy is on the verge of a major expansion, brought on by President Trump’s election and agenda, that is set to unleash our economy, particularly in the energy space. As a leader in the Rocky Mountain region in oil and natural gas with an increasingly important critical mineral and transportation sector, energy production is part of the lifeblood of our state.
However, even with wins this year like President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), permitting processes remain a critical issue. Indeed this hits close to home, as the proposed Uinta Basin Railway project, which would connect the oil-rich region of northeastern Utah to national rail lines, cleared a major roadblock in May only thanks to intervention from the Supreme Court. Upon unanimously overturning a lower court block, the highest court opined that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the statute that governs energy permitting, has been unjustly used by extreme environmentalists to block critical infrastructure. With this bipartisan mandate from the Court, Utah’s congressional delegation, including Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee, must recognize how NEPA has unnecessarily bogged down energy expansion and must be correctly reformed to support workers and businesses.
Signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon, NEPA was intended to create a legal structure to organize energy and infrastructure permitting. While well-intentioned, the status quo has led to endless delays in projects getting appropriate water and environmental approvals, leading to an average NEPA review process of 4.5 years before breaking ground.
The onerous assessments have also led to frivolous lawsuits that seek to hold our state and national energy economy back: NEPA is the most litigated environmental statute in the U.S., with transmission projects averaging 6.5 years and even renewable projects taking up to 4.5 years.
Here in Utah, the current state of NEPA and permitting threatens our economy, as we account for 18 of every 100 barrels of crude oil produced in the Rocky Mountain region, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Almost 80% of households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, the highest share of natural gas home heating use for any U.S. state, while coal fueled about 45% of Utah’s electricity net generation in 2024.
For a state with such varied and mountainous terrain, railways like the Uinta Basin project are critical to ensure all Utahns have access to affordable, reliable energy. Other projects are also key to export energy to other states and coastal terminals to dominate global trade. For example, the Millennium Bulk Terminal was a proposed coal project to ship coal by rail to be exported to Asia with a capacity of 44 million tons per year. However, after the project got its draft environmental review in 2017, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was central to denying a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit and the project ultimately went bankrupt in 2021. For comprehensive and meaningful reform, Utah’s delegation has to be part of changing statutes like the CWA.
Thankfully, our delegation has long been energy champions and can lead this year on comprehensive permitting reform. Along with supporting the OBBB that includes some streamlined permitting provisions, Sen. Lee last year reintroduced the Undoing NEPA’s Substantial Harm by Advancing Concepts that Kickstart the Liberation of the Economy (UNSHACKLE) Act, which would’ve comprehensively reformed NEPA.
Earlier this year, Sen. Curtis called for permitting reform, highlighting Utah’s Operation Gigawatt as a leading example of state-driven innovation in geothermal, nuclear and hydrogen energy. “Utah strives to be a leader on this ... And geothermal, it’d be hard to find an energy source that finds better agreement among everybody that this is something that’s important and needs to develop. And yet we struggle with permitting.”
This is why permitting is so important, because of the direct consequences for our state. Even after the Supreme Court ruled for the project, the Uinta Basin Railway still needs funding for further regulatory hurdles to unleash the transport of an estimated 350,000 barrels of oil each day, massively increasing the state’s oil production. The Supreme Court also outlined in their decision that “the environmental consequences of future oil drilling in the Basin are distinct from construction and operation of the railroad line.” decision that “the environmental consequences of future oil drilling in the Basin are distinct from construction and operation of the railroad line.”
Given this, Congress must act and pass comprehensive permitting reform to fix unending NEPA delays to railways, all varieties of energy projects, and grid development projects that protect our national energy dominance and security. With the already proposed bipartisan Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, Utah’s senators can cement their legacy as energy champions by supporting permitting reform. This will unleash our energy capacity and cement previous OBBB wins that we desperately need to lift up our economy, bring back jobs and support families.