Wyoming signs MOU for expedited permitting under FAST-41

Wyoming recently adopted a measure to accelerate federal and state permitting processes for its infrastructure projects, including uranium mining projects.

On October 26, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Emily Domenich, executive director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council), signed a memorandum of understanding to bring the state's infrastructure projects in line with the requirements of Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, also known as FAST-41.

The move will allow federal and state agencies to coordinate permit reviews and process applications in tandem, with the goal of approving permits sooner. It also will grant the state access to funding opportunities and technological support.

"Wyoming continues to demonstrate our commitment to a balanced and efficient process for development in the Cowboy State," said Gordon. "All new projects from this day forward will be subject to FAST-41."

The announcement was made almost four months after the state launched the Wyoming Energy Dominance Fund, an initiative intended to drive development in its nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas sectors.

FAST-41 basics: The FAST-41 program was created in 2015. Although its name suggests that it was established primarily to support transportation infrastructure development, projects from a wide range of fields qualify, including carbon capture, machine learning, aviation, and water resources. In its 2020 annual report to Congress, the Permitting Council noted that renewable energy production was the category with the most projects for the year.

Projects can qualify for FAST-41 in two ways. A project's executives, or "sponsors," can submit the project for consideration if it meets certain criteria. If accepted, it will become a "covered project." Additionally, Title 41 grants the Permitting Council's executive director authority to add projects that align with the federal administration's priorities to the FAST-41 program; these become "transparency projects."

A state does not have to sign an MOU with the Permitting Council for its projects to be eligible for FAST-41. However, in a fact sheet addressing the state MOUs, the Permitting Council describes the agreements as tools "to align state and federal permitting timelines to prevent unnecessarily long reviews for critical infrastructure projects." Among the MOU requirements are that a state will list its permitting processes for a project in a dashboard alongside the federal permitting actions to allow for the processes to be completed simultaneously when possible.

Wyoming currently has two covered projects in FAST-41, both of which were accepted into the program before Wyoming signed its MOU. The Seminole Pumped Storage Project was listed under FAST-41 in February 2023, while the Bear Lodge Rare Earth Project was listed in March of this year.

Wyoming is the 10th state to sign an MOU with the Permitting Council regarding FAST-41 projects. Alaska was the first, with its MOU signed in August 2025. Tennessee, Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Georgia, Louisiana, Iowa, and Nevada followed.

Uranium mining under FAST-41: Although FAST-41 accepts projects from several sectors, mining projects initially did not qualify for the program. These did not become eligible until January 2021, when the Permitting Council voted to add mining as a qualifying sector due to the need for minerals in other infrastructure projects.

Since then, one uranium mining project has seen its environmental review and permitting processes completed under FAST-41: the Dewey Burdock ISR Uranium Project in South Dakota, which had its processes completed in June 2026. FAST-41 lists three uranium mining projects among its covered projects currently in progress; all three are in New Mexico.

Along with those, two uranium mining projects have been added to FAST-41 as transparency projects. One of these, Uranium Energy Corporation's Sweetwater Project, is based in Wyoming. The Sweetwater Project would mine uranium using both in situ recovery and conventional open pit mining techniques. Its environmental review is slated for completion under FAST-41 in May 2027.