President Donald Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order directly attacks the chief reason for the nation’s inability to permit major projects expeditiously, including those seeking to develop domestically available energy and minerals: the National Environmental Policy Act.

Signed on Inauguration Day, in a section titled “Unleashing Energy Dominance through Efficient Permitting,” the executive order revokes an NEPA order signed by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977, which the nation’s second-highest federal court ruled late last year exceeded his statutory authority.