When a Horror Movie Becomes Federal Policy: New Interior Rule Slashes Reviews

A years-long environmental review process meant to protect our lands from industry abuse has been cut to 28 days and we're supposed to be glad

Since 1970, when the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) became law, major development projects on public lands have undergone years of careful environmental review.

Years, because that’s what it takes to study impacts on drinking water, endangered species, cultural sites, communities, and more. Years, because once you destroy a landscape, you don’t get it back.

Now, with the stroke of a pen, Trump’s Department of the Interior has slashed that process to 28 days. That’s all it’ll take to rubber-stamp oil rigs, gas wells, and mining pits across our public lands.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is out there bragging to anybody who’ll listen about how he’s “reduced a multi-year permitting process down to just 28 days” with the stroke of a pen.

How on earth do you do that you ask?

It’s simple really. You ignore all the laws and statutory requirements by declaring a fake "domestic energy emergency" even though the United States is already producing more oil and gas than any nation in history.

But Wait, There’s More

You haven’t heard the most chilling part: Courts can’t stop this in time.

Here’s how the process will now work:

1. A company submits a proposal to drill, log, mine, build, or develop on public land.

2. Under Trump's emergency order, the agency has only 28 days to approve or deny the application. There’s no real environmental review, no public hearings, no serious consultation with tribes or communities. Only a rushed rubber stamp.

3. Once the permit is issued, construction can begin immediately. There’s no mandatory waiting period. On Day 29, Bulldozers can roll, trees can be felled, rivers can be dredged, you get the idea. Once the permit is granted, companies don’t have to wait for lawsuits to be filed or courts to weigh in. They’re free to start breaking ground.

4. Environmental groups can sue, but only after the permit is issued. You can’t sue a proposal. You can only challenge a final agency decision. And filing a lawsuit doesn’t automatically stop construction. It only starts a typically slow legal process.

5. To stop the bulldozers, environmental groups have to request an emergency court order. This is very difficult to get. Courts almost never grant immediate injunctions unless there’s overwhelming proof of irreversible harm and a strong likelihood of winning the case. Even under urgent circumstances, it can take weeks or months just to get a hearing. Meanwhile, destruction continues.

By the time a judge rules, trees will likely already be cut. The water already polluted. The land already irreparably harmed. And once the damage is done, no court decision can bring it back.

We’ve seen this before. During Trump's first term, his administration used rushed permitting to bulldoze borderlands before lawsuits could stop them. Sacred Indigenous sites were blasted apart. Ancient saguaros were toppled. Wildlife corridors were destroyed. The courts eventually ruled parts of it illegal, but by then it was too late. The damage was permanent.

That’s the model now. Move fast. Break everything. Leave the law in the rubble.

It’s not deregulation. It’s industrialized looting.
It’s a deliberate strategy to hand America's public lands to private companies before the public even knows what happened.

Since 1970, environmental law gave Americans a fighting chance to protect what matters. Now we have 28 days. And then it is gone.

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