December 18, 2025

DENVER – Western Energy Alliance today applauded the U.S. House for advancing meaningful bipartisan permitting reforms by passing the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act  (SPEED Act). Following months of negotiations and debate on improving the permitting process for energy and infrastructure projects, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) succeed in addressing needed reforms to environmental reviews mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The bill now advances to the Senate.

“It shouldn’t take a decade to drill a well for oil or natural gas—or defend one in court. But for energy projects on federal lands, that’s become far too common. Endless litigation under NEPA has turned what the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed in the recent Seven County decision as a procedural statute into a weapon of perpetual delays,” said Melissa Simpson, president of the Alliance. “We have a generational choice in front of us, where we must decide if we are going to be builders or not. Reforming the nation’s outdated permitting system is critical to bolstering energy security, growing jobs, building vital infrastructure, and supporting the projected energy demands of our country in the coming years. Our nation’s economy can no longer sustain the strategy of activist groups to defer, delay, and deny high-value energy and infrastructure projects.”

Over the past week, the Alliance joined a coalition of other oil and natural gas trade associations in sending a pair of letters to President Trump and to House Speaker Johnson supporting the SPEED Act, calling it “essential to achieving the Administration’s stated goals of restoring American energy dominance” while “listening to all sides and reaching common ground.”

The SPEED Act will reduce bureaucratic and judicial delays to federal projects while protecting the environment. The bill also:

• affirms NEPA is a procedural statue
• clarifies courts should give agencies deference on environmental analysis
• prevents courts from vacating or enjoining agency actions under NEPA.
• sets the statute of limitations at 150 days
• limits the scope of NEPA reviews to proximate effects
• prevents presidents from canceling approved permits based on politics.

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