Trump Energy Order Taps Permitting Power of Water, Species Laws

President Donald Trump’s Energy Emergency declaration is a back door to permitting reform that harnesses emergency provisions of the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act to fast-track fossil fuels projects.

Those provisions provide a legal avenue for Trump’s opponents to challenge his plan to remove all constraints on permitting oil, gas, coal, uranium, and other fossil fuel projects often hamstrung by yearslong permitting processes and federal policy favoring renewables.

The order, which excludes wind and solar power in its definition of “energy,” uses laws designed to protect imperiled species, wetlands and waterways to quickly build fossil fuels, nuclear, and ...