Trump supports domestic mining and processing in executive orders

A series of executive orders, signed by President Donald Trump, prioritise domestic energy and critical mineral mining development with a radical focus on revoking permitting regulations.

The new National Energy Emergency prioritises “energy and critical minerals (“energy”) identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity.”

The actions to support this move include orders to:

• restore America’s mineral dominance, with an order to “identify all agency actions that impose undue burdens on the domestic mining and processing of non-fuel minerals and undertake steps to revise or rescind such actions”
• to expedite and simplify the permitting process, with an order to provide guidance on the proposal to rescind CEQ’s NEPA regulations found at 40 CFR 1500 et seq, within 30 days
• provide greater certainty in the Federal permitting process, including, but not limited to, streamlining the judicial review of the application of NEPA
• the Secretary of State shall consider opportunities to advance the mining and processing of minerals within the United States through the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue
• the Secretary of Energy shall ensure that critical mineral projects, including the processing of critical minerals, receive consideration for Federal support, contingent on the availability of appropriated funds
• the Secretaries of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Homeland Security, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Chairman of CEQ, and the heads of any other relevant agencies shall undertake all available efforts to eliminate all delays within their respective permitting processes, including through, but not limited to, the use of general permitting and permit by rule
• the US has formally withdrawn (again) from the Paris Agreement and the International Climate Finance Plan has also been revoked and rescinded immediately
• open up the state of Alaska and its abundant “natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber”, in particular, expediting the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska

The aim, as described in the executive orders, is to establish the US position as the leading producer and processor of non-fuel minerals, including rare earth minerals, and strengthen supply chains for the United States and its allies, and reduce the global influence of malign and adversarial states.

Arguably the most consequential order is the revoking of Executive Order 11991 of May 24, 1977 and the proposal to rescind the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) issued by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) under President Carter in 1978 — that mandate that federal agencies consider the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and involve the public in the decision-making process.