The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review
Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure, directs federal agencies to speed approvals for data centers adding more than 100 megawatts of load or costing at least 500 million dollars. It tells agencies to find and create categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act, and directs Interior and Energy to offer federal sites while Defense may competitively lease military land.
How the public reaches this
An executive order takes no public comment. Its effect is to remove review steps that would otherwise have carried one, so the room this closes is the environmental review a project would have had.
Timeline
Sources
Every document a fact on this page was checked against.
How this decision moved
One dated line per material change, oldest first.
2026-08-06 Tracked, with the number corrected. A reader asked for Executive Order 14314; that order is Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks, and it raises national park entry fees for foreign visitors. The order that governs data center permitting is 14318, signed July 23rd, 2025. Its Alaska relevance is direct, because it instructs the Defense Department that it may competitively lease military land for qualifying projects, which is the authority underneath the Air Force offer of about 4,700 acres at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, Eielson and Clear that this docket already tracks. A categorical exclusion means a project is presumed to have no significant environmental effect and skips the study that would otherwise be written, so the order's practical effect in Alaska is fewer published environmental findings on the largest power users the state has ever considered.
2026-08-18 Re-verified. Executive Order 14318 stands as published, with no amendment or revocation on the record.
2026-08-26 Checked and unchanged against the government's own publication record, which carries Executive Order 14318 as signed July 23rd, 2025 and published July 28th, 2025, with no amendment, revocation or superseding order recorded.
2026-08-30 Checked and unchanged against the government's own publication record, which carries Executive Order 14318 as signed July 23rd, 2025 and published July 28th, 2025, with no amendment, revocation or superseding order recorded.
2026-09-03 Checked and unchanged. A search of the Federal Register across the last three months returns no amendment, no revocation, no superseding order and no agency rule citing Executive Order 14318. It stands as signed on July 23rd, 2025 and published on July 28th, 2025.
2026-09-07 Checked and unchanged against the order's full text. Executive Order 14318 of July 23rd, 2025 names no state and carries no Alaska specific siting provision, and its agency deadlines all run from the signing date rather than from any calendar event. It stays tracked here as the federal backdrop against which Alaska siting decisions are made.
2026-09-11 Checked and unchanged against the order's full text, read through the Government Publishing Office rather than the Federal Register site, which refuses an automated request. Executive Order 14318 of July 23rd, 2025 names no state and the word Alaska does not appear in it. Its deadlines all ran from the signing date and have all passed, 10 days for agencies to identify categorical exclusions to the Council on Environmental Quality, 180 days for the Environmental Protection Agency to develop guidance on expediting environmental reviews, and 180 days for the Army to review the nationwide permits. What reaches Alaska is the general machinery, not a provision written for it.
2026-09-15 Checked and unchanged against the order's full text at the Government Publishing Office. Executive Order 14318 of July 23rd, 2025 still names no state, and no Alaska project has been identified as qualifying under its 100 megawatt or $500 million thresholds.
Cite this
Alaska AI Docket, The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review.
Tracked since August 6th, last verified
September 19th. https://alaskaaihq.com/docket/eo-14318-data-center-permitting/ · Reuse permitted under
CC BY 4.0 with attribution. This decision is also available as
structured data in the docket
JSON, item id eo-14318-data-center-permitting.
Questions about this decision
Answered from this record, rebuilt every day. The same answers come back instantly from the box on the docket page, where you can ask about anything else on it.
What is The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure, directs federal agencies to speed approvals for data centers adding more than 100 megawatts of load or...
Who decides The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
The President, carried out by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Interior, Energy and Defense departments
Can I comment on The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
An executive order takes no public comment. Its effect is to remove review steps that would otherwise have carried one, so the room this closes is the environmental review a project would have had.
Has The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review been decided?
It is being watched. Tracked, with the number corrected. A reader asked for Executive Order 14314; that order is Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks, and it raises...
What happens next with The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
No further date is published. It is being watched and the record is checked against its source every day.
What changed on The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
Tracked, with the number corrected. A reader asked for Executive Order 14314; that order is Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks, and it raises...
What kind of decision is The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
A decision, decided by The President, carried out by the Council on Environmental Quality and the Interior, Energy and Defense departments.
When did The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review start?
Tracked since August 6th, 44 days ago. The earliest date on its record is July 23rd, 2025.
Where can I read the sources for The executive order that lets big data centers skip the usual federal review?
Federal Register, The American Presidency Project, GovInfo, Compilation of Presidential Documents. Every one is listed with its date on the decision page.
Beats
This decision is tracked on Alaska data centers · Alaska power and the grid · Alaska land and permitting for AI · Defense and federal AI in Alaska. Each beat page keeps every decision and every article on that subject in one place.