Wyoming will partner with the Trump administration on an initiative to streamline and expedite permitting for large energy and other industrial projects such as data centers, representatives from both groups announced Monday.

Gov. Mark Gordon joined Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council Executive Director Emily Domenech during a press conference Monday afternoon to sign a memorandum of understanding “to prevent unnecessarily long reviews for critical infrastructure projects.” The agreement promises to align Wyoming with the administration’s expedited permitting efforts, which have included shortened environmental reviews and public commenting periods.

“I’m really excited because I think the relationship that we’re going to put together today will prove mutually beneficial, because it will help make sure that our environmental reviews [and] federal environmental reviews are done expeditiously,” Gordon said.

Some federally expedited environmental reviews in Wyoming, however, have already caused heartache among residents and local officials, like the Seminoe pumped water storage hydroelectric project that has raised concerns about a prized trout fishery downstream and a bighorn sheep herd.

But the governor noted that some large energy projects in the state have endured years—and more than a decade, in some cases—of permitting reviews before final approval. The process can take so long that markets often change the economic viability and scope of a project.

“If it takes us eight years just to get through scoping [the initial federal, state and public reviews], and things can change as dramatically as they have, then it really slows things down,” he said.

The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council , created in President Barack Obama’s second term, has been instrumental in implementing the Trump administration’s efforts to accelerate permitting reviews for energy and other large projects such as artificial intelligence computing centers.

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