The Trump administration has pursued regulatory rollbacks and executive orders over the past 20 months to accelerate industrial development projects. A key mechanism for this effort is FAST-41, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, originally enacted under President Barack Obama in 2015 to streamline federal review for large-scale infrastructure projects. The administration expanded FAST-41’s scope in July 2025 to include artificial intelligence data centers as critical infrastructure eligible for expedited review.
In late October, Montana became the 11th state to sign an agreement with the Permitting Council, which oversees FAST-41. This federal-state collaboration enables the government to identify infrastructure projects eligible for fast-track designation, provide resources to state agencies during permitting, and consolidate permitting timelines and documents on a unified dashboard. The agreement now covers mining operations related to rare earth element extraction, which supports data center development. Ten other states—Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, and Iowa—had previously entered similar arrangements.
Proponents argue the streamlined process creates certainty and builds investor confidence. Adrian Van Rythoven, an associate professor at Montana Tech’s Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, noted that established timelines appeal to capital markets and mineral exploration companies. Montana currently has three mining projects with transparency designations under the framework: Sheep Creek, Blue Copper, and Stillwater Mine.
However, questions remain about implementation. The environmental community, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, has cautioned that expedited permitting could disproportionately benefit fossil fuel and mining projects over clean energy alternatives. Additionally, uncertainty persists about how much influence states exercise in project selection and whether simultaneous state-federal permitting will meaningfully reduce development timelines given the personnel and resources required for processing applications.
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