Coal Decision Poses Fresh Questions About New Permitting Rules

A recent decision by a federal court to reject a coal mine’s challenge of US agency action has poked holes in a 2023 law that was meant to make environmental permitting simpler.

Far from speeding up projects, the first legal test of the permitting fixes in last year’s debt ceiling deal may have the opposite effect of injecting more uncertainty into the process, attorneys say.

At issue is a clause in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) that codified a two-year deadline for the completion of environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. If the agency can’t meet that deadline, ...