One of President Donald Trump’s first acts in his second term was to declare a “national energy emergency,” due to high prices “exacerbated” by “hostile foreign actors,” and attributing much of that to the Biden administration. The executive order directed the heads of federal agencies to identify energy production opportunities on federal lands, and identify ways they could speed up applications.
The move drew early criticism, with many pointing out that during Joe Biden’s presidency, the U.S. produced more oil and gas than any other nation in the world at any point in history. That statistic is still true.
Now, six months into Trump’s second term, public lands advocates are saying that their criticisms were correct, and that the administration is not operating as if there were a real emergency.
Sped-up environmental review periods, no public comment
The emergency declaration spurred the Department of the Interior, headed by Doug Burgum, to speed up the environmental review and permitting process for projects that produce “critical minerals,” as defined by an executive order. Those include uranium, copper, potash, and gold, along with giving the recently-established National Energy Dominance Council (chaired by Burgum) broad authority to designate more.
Some of the first projects considered under this new, expedited process are in the Mountain West. The proposed Velvet-Wood uranium mine, southeast of Monticello, Utah, and the Wildcat Loadout facility near Helper, Utah, both received environmental review periods from the BLM that lasted just fourteen days.
Operated by Canadian company Anfield Energy, the Velvet-Wood Mine operated for a very brief period in the 1980s. The state of Utah has been doing reclamation work in the area for decades. Anfield also intends to re-open its Shootaring Canyon Mill near Hanksville, which is about 180 miles away, though it only operated for six months in 1982.
The expansion of the Wildcat Loadout facility is intended to speed up the transfer of waxy crude oil from trucks from the Uinta Basin, onto trains that then travel east along the Colorado River to refineries in Texas and Louisiana. During its brief review period, BLM did not provide any documents or plans. In July, it released its environmental assessment along with its Finding of No Significant Impact, which said that the facility will load 100,000 barrels of crude oil onto trains each day. The trains would have 104 rail cars, making them approximately a mile in length.
Neither project allowed for any public comment or feedback, as is typically required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Landon Newell, a staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said there had been some activity on the expansion for Wildcat, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate that there is an emergency that the administration needs to address.
“They actually kind of just show the opposite, which is the more basic principle that market forces dictate a lot of what happens,” he said. “We are producing oil at the highest level ever, so it's unsurprising that an oil project that's meant to facilitate that production is going to be implemented. That was going to happen regardless of whether there (was) a so-called emergency… And then in contrast, there is clearly no uranium emergency because the company can't even be bothered to provide basic information to the state of Utah to get its necessary permits.”
Anfield has yet to submit information for several key permits required by the state of Utah for the mine. The state’s Division of Oil, Gas & Mining requested more information from Anfield, with a response due June 30, but has not received the company’s response. The Utah Division of Water Quality has also not received plans for a pilot water treatment plant, and online searches indicate that the Division of Air Quality has not received applications for a ventilation shaft installation and operation.
Newell said this lack of urgency belies the emergency declaration.
“How can you claim an emergency despite all the contrary facts, of course, like enormous and all time high oil production, while at the same time also realizing that these projects are still going to be subject to any number of other state and federal permits, which could take months or years to receive?” he said. “It really all is just a handout to the fossil fuel industry and supporters of the current administration. Nothing more.”
Newell also noted that both projects had sidestepped a key part of the NEPA process, which is getting public comment. Although documents are now available to view following the approvals, the BLM did not provide any documents for review, nor any avenue for public feedback during the abbreviated review periods.
“It … shows the lengths at which the Trump administration is going to help its fossil fuels allies while alienating the public from decisions that implicate public land and resources,” Newell said.
“One Big Beautiful Bill” cuts red tape for fossil fuels, kneecaps renewables
The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed in July, makes big changes to the leasing process for oil and gas on BLM lands.
The law creates new definitions for which lands are “eligible” and “available” to lease, and takes away the BLM’s discretion to add protections or conditions to leases. Another new rule extends the amount of time oil and gas companies are allowed to hold onto a lease without developing the land from three years to four. The OBBB also cuts royalty rates for oil and gas companies.
In addition, the Bureau of Land Management will no longer charge a $5-per-acre nomination fee to developers. Public lands advocates fear this will encourage them to nominate vast swaths of land.
Kate Groetzinger with the nonpartisan Center for Western Priorities said another concern is a new provision requiring the BLM to lease any land that an oil and gas company nominates within 18 months.
“Really, the upshot of this is that the public is going to lose out on access to public lands and oil and gas companies are really going to be put in the driver's seat when it comes to how our public lands are used,” she said.
Groetzinger said all of these new rules combined elevate fossil fuels above all other uses of BLM lands, especially because such large lease sales take a very long time for the agency to put together.
“All of these changes will really just force the BLM staff to spend way more time putting together fossil fuel lease sales than doing other parts of their job, like managing rangeland health,” she said.
The OBBB also clawed back renewable energy subsidies from Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, and gave projects that had already been awarded funds a much earlier deadline for completion in order to receive the money.
The Interior Department has also been implementing new restrictions on renewable energy, especially wind and solar. In one such example, leases, environmental assessments, and related actions must all be reviewed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s office.
Groetzinger said this undermines the administration’s declaration of a “national energy emergency,” because in a true emergency, the administration would be pursuing an “all of the above” approach, which includes renewable energy.
Copyright 2025 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.
