Rama Krishna Sangem
President-elect Donald Trump said his administration would help expedite permits for any person or company that invested at least $1 billion in the US.
“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,” Trump said Tuesday in a post on his Truth Social network. “GET READY TO ROCK!!!”
Trump did not immediately detail what steps his administration would take to help investors secure permits to fast-track projects and any such effort is likely to face hurdles at the state and local levels.
Trump’s pledge, though, is in line with his vows to help bolster energy, infrastructure and other domestic investments in his second term and roll back federal regulations Republicans say have hampered economic growth.
The president-elect is nominating North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to head the Interior Department as well as a newly created National Energy Council and is tapping Chris Wright, who runs a Colorado-based oil and natural gas fracking services company, to lead the Energy Department.
Burgum is the head of an energy-rich state and and Wright is a vocal proponent of oil and gas development, highlighting the incoming administration’s focus on bolstering domestic energy production.
Focus on oil & gas
Permitting reform is a major focus for the oil and gas industries. The prospect of years of legal and regulatory delays has deterred the construction of new pipelines and has curbed the growth of natural gas production in the Appalachian region.
The same issue is now of primary concern for electricity generators and tech companies as the growth in artificial intelligence-related data capacity is forecast to rapidly increase US power demand over the next few years, requiring major investment in new generation and transmission infrastructure.
The issue has long been a priority for Trump, a former real estate developer who in his first term as president complained some of the nation’s most critical infrastructure projects were “tied up and bogged down by an outrageously slow and burdensome federal approval process.”
