According to a recent Reuters report, the US government, under Biden's administration, will allow a few criteria-matching semiconductor fabs to circumvent environmental protection laws. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed legislation that effectively enables these fabs to not follow the strict regulations designed for maximum preservation of the environment. The Semiconductor Industry Association has noted that without this new legislation, companies that are extending facilities on US soil would be significantly slowed down due to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The CHIPS Act's primary force driver isn't just domestic production but near-future completion so that future geopolitical shifts don't impact US companies. The speed of getting permits to manufacture advanced chips is essential for every CHIPS Act recipient company, like Intel, Samsung, TSMC, and Micron.There are three conditions that exempt semiconductor fabs from NEPA review:

• (A) the activity described in the application for that project has commenced not later than December 31, 2024;
• (B) the Federal financial assistance provided is in the form of a loan or loan guarantee; or
• (C) the Federal financial assistance provided, excluding any loan or loan guarantee, comprises not more than 10 percent of the total estimated cost of the project.

This means that the fab construction must start before the end of the year and that the CHIPS Act federal loan must be no higher than 10% of the total project cost. How and what will come out of this is yet to be seen. US Representative Zoe Lofgren noted that prior semiconductor projects in California left massive environmental damage and that "We should be learning from this legacy and ensuring we don't repeat it." Others, like Democratic Senator Mark Kelly and Republican Senator Ted Cruz, expressed a more positive attitude towards the bill, saying that the legislation will remove unnecessary delays and enable more American independence.