RESCUE Act of 2025

This bill changes the federal permit process by adding certain mining- and coal-related activities to the list of “critical projects” under the FAST Act. It covers projects that extract, recover, or process materials from acid mine drainage, mine tailings, coal, coal waste, coal processing waste, or coal byproducts from before or after combustion.

It specifically includes three types of materials: minerals covered by the Mining Law of 1872 (including those on lands later acquired by the U.S.), rare earth elements, and microfine carbon or carbon from coal. By placing these projects in the “critical project” category, the bill ties them to a defined federal permitting track in the FAST Act’s framework.

Key points

• What changes: Expands the definition of a “critical project” in the FAST Act to include certain extraction, recovery, or processing projects tied to mine waste and coal-related sources.
• Covered sources: Acid mine drainage, mine tailings, coal, coal waste, coal processing waste, and pre- or post-combustion coal byproducts.
• Covered materials: Locatable minerals under the 1872 Mining Law, rare earth elements, and microfine carbon or carbon from coal.