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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 5 / Friday, January 8, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Congress placed on the Permitting Councils authority to designate a FAST41 sector is that the designation occur by majority vote. 42 U.S.C.
4370m6A. Moreover, because compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act NEPA is a precondition of FAST41 project coverage, the fact that a sector has projects with potentially significant environmental impacts militates in favor of adding it as a FAST41 sector.
42 U.S.C. 4370m6Ai & ii.

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Suitability of Mining Projects for FAST
41 Coverage Several commenters argue that designating mining as a FAST41 sector is inappropriate because mining projects are too complex and diverse for the FAST41 process and the Permitting Council to manage. One commenter suggested that the Permitting Council lacks adequate resources, funding, and technical expertise to conduct environmental reviews and oversee the permitting process for any covered mining projects, despite the fact that the Permitting Council consists of all the Federal agencies currently responsible for the environmental review and authorization of mining projects and collectively possesses all the technical and environmental expertise that the U.S. government has to bear.
Mining is an appropriate FAST41
sector precisely because mining projects can be complex and diverse, and can necessitate extensive and coordinated Federal and state environmental review and decision making. The more complex the permitting path, the more likely it is that a project will be able to benefit from the enhanced interagency coordination, transparency, and predictability FAST41 coverage provides. The Permitting Councils current project portfolio includes some of the largest, most complex, and novel infrastructure projects in the U.S., including multibillion-dollar renewable energy projects wind and solar as well as pipeline projects that are hundreds of miles long, cross Federal, state, private, and Tribal lands, and require dozens of permits and authorizations from numerous Federal and state entities.
Covered projects also include several unprecedented, multibillion-dollar offshore wind projects, which require close interagency coordination as they are shepherded through the project review and approval process. Two of the FAST41 covered projects that completed the Federal review process in 2020 are the largest of their kind a solar renewable energy project and a liquefied natural gas and pipeline project.

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Most large-scale infrastructure projects that would be eligible for FAST41 coverage present environmental, jurisdictional, procedural, and interagency permitting challenges that the Permitting Council works daily to resolve. Through its vote to add mining as a FAST41 sector, the Permitting Council has signaled its willingness to assist covered mining project sponsors in resolving their complex project review process challenges.
The same commenters who argue that mining projects are too complex and diverse for FAST41 coverage inconsistently argue that FAST41
coverage for mining projects is unnecessary because mining permitting in the U.S. is relatively swift, purportedly averaging two years. But the fact that some mining projects may be approved within a relatively short timeframe has no bearing on whether any given mining project may benefit from the enhanced interagency coordination, predictability, efficiency, and transparency that FAST41
coverage can provide. Additionally, the two-year average permitting timeframe cited by commenters originates in a U.S.
Government Accountability Office GAO report that only considered the time needed to obtain mining authorizations from Federal land management agencies, and not the estimated time needed to obtain myriad other Federal authorizations and permits that likely would be included in any FAST41 covered project permitting timetable.2 The GAO report acknowledges that it sometimes can take over 11 years to obtain authorizations from Federal land management agencies, not counting these other required authorizations.3 Several commenters referenced the example of the Kensington Mine in Alaska, which reportedly took 19 years to authorize and required over 90 Federal and State authorizations.
FAST41 Does Not Supplant NEPA or Existing Procedural Requirements Many of the comments evidence a widespread belief that FAST41
provides an alternate expedited project review and permitting regime 2 GAO, Hardrock Mining: BLM and Forest Service Have Taken Some Actions to Expedite the Mine Plan Review Process but Could Do More, GAO16
165 Jan. 2016.
3 Id. at 13, 17 we identified six categories of federal permits and authorizations that mine operators may need to obtain from entities other than BLM and the Forest Service and seven categories of state and local permits and authorizations across 12 western states that may be required depending on the nature of the mining operations.

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that supplants NEPA and potentially other permitting and procedural requirements. This is not the case. The FAST41 statute expressly does not supersede NEPA or affect any other agency statutory or regulatory requirement. See 42 U.S.C. 4370m 6d1 FAST41 does not supersede, amend, or modify any Federal statute or affect the responsibility of any Federal agency officer to comply with or enforce any statute; 42 U.S.C. 4370m6d2
Nothing in FAST41 . . . creates a presumption that a covered project will be approved or favorably reviewed by any agency; 42 U.S.C. 4370m6e1
Nothing in this section preempts, limits, or interferes with . . . any practice of seeking, considering, or responding to public comment; 42
U.S.C. 4370m6e2 Nothing in FAST41 preempts, limits, or interferes with . . . any power, jurisdiction, responsibility, or authority that a Federal, State, or local governmental agency, metropolitan planning organization, Indian tribe, or project sponsor has with respect to carrying out a project or any other provisions of law applicable to any project, plan, or program.; 42 U.S.C.
4370m11 providing that FAST41
does not amend NEPA.
Although FAST41 may provide more timely Federal decision making with respect to a covered project, it does not alter the rigor of any Federal agencys decision making, as some commenters suggest. Longer permitting timeframes should not be confused with rigorous Federal agency decision making. Much of the time savings associated with FAST41 coverage has been achieved through coordinating interagency efforts, eliminating needless duplication, and engaging agencies and project sponsors to foster improved communication, and not through subverting applicable project review or decision-making procedures.
FAST41 Flexibility Mechanisms Commenters appear to incorrectly presume that FAST41 coverage would subject mining projects to an arbitrarily inflexible, expedited environmental review and authorization process that would prevent Federal decision makers from obtaining and reviewing necessary technical and environmental information, providing opportunities for essential public input, coordinating with relevant state, local, and Tribal governments, and adjusting the FAST
41 project permitting timetable 42
U.S.C. 4370m2c1A, c1bii &
c2 to accommodate adequate NEPA
review. But FAST41 contains precisely the flexibility mechanisms that
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