At Governor Spencer Cox's Operation Gigawatt Summit in Park City last week, Utah did something worth paying attention to. Gov. Cox and Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council Executive Director Emily Domenech signed a memorandum of understanding committing Utah to the FAST-41 permitting process — aligning state and federal environmental review timelines for critical infrastructure projects and bringing a new level of transparency and predictability to the permitting process.
It's a practical step with real consequences. Too often, major energy and infrastructure projects clear the federal environmental review process only to sit and wait while state permitting catches up. This MOU is designed to close that gap — coordinating timelines, identifying priority projects, and avoiding the duplicative delays that add years and millions of dollars to development without improving outcomes.
What FAST-41 Actually Does
FAST-41, established by Congress in 2015, created the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council to bring structure, accountability, and transparency to the federal review process for major infrastructure projects. Projects that opt into FAST-41 coverage get a comprehensive permitting timetable and a public dashboard to track progress. The idea is simple: sunlight and schedules keep things moving.
Under this MOU, Utah commits to aligning its state permitting timelines with that federal process. In return, the Permitting Council provides technical assistance, convenes interagency meetings, and helps identify projects eligible for streamlined review. Utah also gains access to funding and technology to improve its own permitting systems.
The agreement is the fourth federal-state MOU signed under the Trump administration — following Alaska, Idaho, and Tennessee — with more states expected to follow.
Why It Matters for Utah
The stakes are high. Utah contains 50 of the 60 federally listed critical minerals. Governor Cox has set an ambitious target through Operation Gigawatt to double the state's energy production over the next decade. The Permitting Council's involvement means more eyes, more coordination, and fewer bureaucratic bottlenecks standing between Utah's resource base and the projects that can put it to work.
As Gov. Cox put it: "Utah is a state that builds. We know that America's future depends on our ability to move projects from idea to reality."
That's the right framing. Permitting reform isn't about cutting corners on environmental review — it's about making the process honest, predictable, and efficient. When developers know upfront what the timeline looks like and agencies are working from the same schedule, good projects move forward. The ones that shouldn't don't get a pass just because the clock keeps running.
The Bigger Picture
The Western Way has long argued that permitting dysfunction is one of the biggest self-inflicted wounds in American energy policy. The resources are here. The capital is ready. The workforce exists. What slows projects down — often for years — is a permitting system that lacks coordination, transparency, and accountability.
Utah's MOU is a blueprint other Western states should be studying. Geothermal development, critical mineral extraction, solar and battery storage projects, transmission lines — all of these face the same permitting gauntlet. A coordinated federal-state approach that aligns timelines and creates public accountability doesn't require new legislation or regulatory overhaul. It just requires states and the federal government to decide to work together.
That's exactly what Utah did. And it's exactly what the West needs more of.