On May 22, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council), aiming to better coordinate state and federal permitting efforts and avoid unnecessary delays for critical energy and infrastructure projects in Utah. The MoU commits Utah to aligning state permitting timelines with federal environmental review timelines for eligible FAST-41 projects, and builds on Gov. Cox’s Executive Order 2025-01, which directs the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to streamline permitting procedures.
Under a new framework, Utah and the Permitting Council will together identify priority projects, coordinate permitting reviews across agencies, and improve transparency through the FAST-41 process. This agreement relies on authority from the 2015 FAST Act, and represents the fourth such state-federal permitting MOU, following Alaska, Idaho, and Tennessee.
