Don't stop breathing just yet. There's a world of difference between securing the permit and actually getting the project built. Doubtless the leftists are even now preparing hundreds upon hundreds of lawsuits challenging every provision of the permit you can imagine. Most of them will be completely frivolous actions and will be dismissed out of hand, but they will still serve their purpose of clogging up the courts and delaying construction on the project.
And all they have to do is get a few of them in front of the right liberal activist judges, and they can litigate the permit for years and years. These left wing groups have unlimited funds thanks to outfits like the Tides Foundation, unlimited access to far left attorneys and law students who will volunteer to perform much of the legal scut, and the full backing and support of the democrat party and it's media.
The permittee, OTOH, has to shoulder every penny of the cost of defending his interests, including all the engineering studies and expert analyses. He can also count on being subjected to a non-stop smear campaign in the press, along with any politician who dares to voice support for the project.
The leftist assault is carefully designed to wear these people down, make them decide that it's too expensive and damaging to their long-term interests to proceed with the project, and then to abandon it. It succeeds all too often.
The extreme left and the democrats have effectively imposed a moratorium on energy infrastructure improvements in this country that has endured for decades. They will go all out to keep that moratorium in place.
As I said in an internal memo to others on the subject:
"On a journey of miles, the Yuma project has just moved a few feet closer to possible realization"