In his joint address to Congress, President Donald Trump declared that “the golden age of America has only just begun.” He evoked the spirit of national greatness — pioneers crossing the frontier, engineers raising the Empire State Building and Golden Gate Bridge, and workers pouring their sweat into marvels such as the Hoover Dam.
“We are a country of doers, dreamers, fighters, and survivors,” he said. “Now it is our time … to begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country.”
But there’s a catch: If we tried to build the Hoover Dam today, it would likely never happen — not for lack of skill or ambition, but because our permitting system has become a major roadblock. Even state and local leaders ready to build are trapped in a federal maze.
That’s not hyperbole. It’s the reality of America’s broken environmental review system, built on the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law originally designed to require federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of major projects. Over time, however, it has morphed from a simple disclosure requirement into a procedural labyrinth that delays, derails, and often defeats the very projects that once defined our national spirit.
Trump has long understood this. During his first term, he warned: “It took four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, five years to build the Hoover Dam, and less than one year … to build the Empire State Building. Yet today, it can take more than 10 years just to get a permit to build a simple road.”
The NEPA doesn’t block projects outright or impose environmental standards. It requires agencies to produce environmental assessments or environmental impact statements. But over time, this process has become a powerful tool for obstruction. Although there have been recent efforts to streamline review timelines, the typical EIS still takes more than two years to complete, often far longer for complex projects, and can stretch hundreds of pages.
Worse, the NEPA has become a favorite litigation tool for activists bent on blocking energy and infrastructure projects. The Breakthrough Institute reports that just 10 organizations are behind more than half of all NEPA lawsuits, with each one adding an average of 4.2 years in delays. The toll on agencies is severe: At one point, the Forest Service reported nearly 40% of its budget was consumed by managing the NEPA process.
That’s why Trump’s renewed push to reform the NEPA is so critical. On his first day back in office, he signed the executive order on Unleashing American Energy, which revoked a Carter-era directive that added an extra layer of bureaucracy by empowering the Council on Environmental Quality to issue binding NEPA rules across all federal agencies. That 1977 order turned the CEQ from an advisory body into a centralized rulemaker, forcing a one-size-fits-all process on agencies with vastly different missions.
The CEQ recently closed public comments on an interim final rule, a regulation that takes effect immediately but still invites public feedback, that winds down its control over the NEPA. Predictably, the docket was flooded with over 100,000 submissions, many of them mass-generated objections claiming that the rule would “destroy the environment.” But the rule doesn’t eliminate environmental review, it makes it functional. It directs each agency to develop its own NEPA process suited to its mission.
These reforms strike at the heart of permitting paralysis. But if the Trump administration wants to go further, and truly usher in a golden age of building, the most overlooked solution is hiding in plain sight: the states.
Across the country, state agencies already conduct rigorous environmental reviews under their own permitting frameworks. The CEQ’s own analysis confirms many are well-aligned with the NEPA’s core objectives: informed decision-making, public engagement, and evaluation of alternatives.
Take environmental reviews in New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, all of which mirror the NEPA’s structure. Montana and California allow joint NEPA-state reviews. South Dakota, North Carolina, and Indiana go further, accepting federal NEPA documents to meet state requirements.
The federal government should return the favor.
This isn’t just theory, it’s already working in transportation projects. Through a federal program called NEPA Assignment, states including Texas, Florida, and California have successfully taken full control of environmental reviews for federally funded highway projects. Texas cut environmental assessment timelines by 121 days, while California slashed draft EIS preparation time by more than 31 months.
And it’s more than smart policy, it’s strategic. States are better positioned than Washington bureaucrats to understand local priorities. They bring local knowledge, accountability, and a practical sense of trade-offs that federal agencies often lack. Leaning on the states will shrink Washington’s regulatory footprint while creating lasting structural change.
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Once states take ownership of the NEPA, it becomes much harder for future administrations to recentralize control. That’s the genius of federalism: Power closer to the people is power that’s harder to take back.
If Trump wants to leave a legacy of building, energy dominance, and renewed national strength, finishing the job on NEPA reform is essential. The next phase is clear: Empower the states to lead — they are ready to deliver.
Jennifer Butler is a Senior Policy Adviser at State Policy Network’s Center for Practical Federalism.