On the first day of his second term in office, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders that included several provisions aimed at accelerating the federal permitting process. While the long-term impacts of these policies remain to be seen, it is valuable to assess the current landscape.
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently released a report highlighting updated timelines for completing Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), a key step in project permitting required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). While the data indicate progress in reducing EIS review timelines, they also underscore a persistent challenge: The majority of EISs still exceed the statutory two-year deadline.
CEQ’s findings reveal that just 39% of EISs completed since the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023 meet the law’s required two-year deadline. While this marks an improvement from pre-FRA figures—when just 29% of EISs were completed within two years—61% still exceed the legally required timeframe. Additionally, CEQ data reveals that nearly a quarter of projects that completed an EIS since the FRA’s enactment took more than five years, with some extending beyond a decade.
Read more from the Bipartisan Policy Center here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
