James Lynch writes for National Review Online about one low-profile Trump administration official who could have a major positive impact.
A small, interagency council is at the forefront of the Trump administration’s attempt to unleash American industry through the reduction of burdensome rules and regulations.
Permitting reform council executive director Emily Domenech leads an interagency staff fully devoted to helping companies navigate the bureaucratic maze of permitting in order to speed up development timelines. In a wide-ranging interview last week, Domenech spoke with National Review about her staff’s work product and how they navigate existing permitting rules on the federal and state level to help companies get complex projects over the finish line.
“If you have a president who really wants to get things built and use every tool, then we’re a pretty effective agency,” Domenech said, crediting President Trump’s support for unleashing the agency’s potential. Trump’s mandate for the agency is a stark contrast to the Biden administration’s pro-regulatory outlook, which limited the permitting council’s effectiveness.
“If you have a president who is more interested in adding new regulations or new requirements, then it’s very sleepy, and they don’t accomplish a lot.”
During the first year of Trump’s term, Domenech said the council has completed permitting on 13 projects, compared to 17 over the four years President Biden held office.
Congress established the permitting council in 2015 as an independent federal agency designed to help the president get more projects built. It functions as a “sherpa” to guide companies through the regulatory labyrinth of the environmental review process. Rather than changing the law, the permitting council works within it, using every tool at its disposal to accelerate the review process. Her agency is tasked solely with executing the president’s permitting policy across sectors.
An example Domenech cites is Trump’s executive order on the mining sector signed last March. Trump ordered the permitting council to include mining projects as transparency projects on its permitting dashboard. In response, the permitting council began listing mining projects on the dashboard, which now includes 53 of them.
