WINONA, Minn. & BELFAST, Northern Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 18, 2025--
Fastenal Company (Nasdaq: FAST), a global leader in industrial distribution and supply chain solutions, and the Belfast Giants, the only professional ice hockey team on the island of Ireland, have entered into a sponsorship agreement to enhance Fastenal's brand exposure in Northern Ireland.
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Fastenal has been an official partner of the National Hockey League (NHL) in North America since August 2020. The Giants sponsorship is Fastenal's first foray into the U.K.'s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), whose 2025–2026 season kicked off on September 13th and runs through April 2026.
Founded in 2000, the Belfast Giants have enjoyed consistent on-ice success over the past 25 years. The team is deeply committed to the local community, spearheading grass roots initiatives, school programs, and charitable projects that inspire players and fans alike.
Fastenal began operating in Northern Ireland in 2012 and, like the Giants, has grown with the community. "As part of the Northern Ireland business landscape for 13 years, we've built teams, we've built businesses, and we've become part of the fabric of the city and country," said Andrew Davidson, regional vice president for Fastenal. "We're extremely proud to represent Belfast in this endeavor, and we're dedicated to the future growth of Northern Ireland."
Steve Thornton, sports director of The Odyssey Trust, the organization that manages the Belfast Giants, added, "Fastenal's support of the NHL demonstrates their passion for ice hockey, and we're proud to bring that commitment to Belfast through this new partnership. Aligning with a partner of Fastenal's caliber reflects the ambitions of our organization, and we look forward to building a strong and successful relationship together in the season ahead."
About Fastenal
With approximately 1,600 branch locations spanning 25 countries, Fastenal supplies a broad offering of fasteners, safety products, metal cutting products, and other industrial supplies to customers engaged in manufacturing, construction, warehouse and storage, data centers, wholesale, and federal, state, and local government. By investing in local experts and inventory, customer-facing technology, wide-ranging services, and best-in-class sourcing and logistics, we offer a unique combination of capabilities to help our customers reduce cost, risk, and scalability constraints in their global supply chains. This "high-touch, high-tech" approach is reflected in our tagline, Where Industry Meets Innovation™.
Additional information regarding Fastenal is available on our website at www.fastenal.com in the US or www.fastenal.eu in Europe.
About the Belfast Giants
The Belfast Giants made history in 2000, becoming the first professional ice hockey team on the island of Ireland. After three months on the road, the team took to their home ice in Belfast for the first time in December 2000. Their momentous sell-out opening night captured the hearts of an entire nation and started an ice hockey phenomenon that remains today. The team has won eight Elite Hockey League titles, six Challenge Cups, three Elite League Playoff championships, and one Knockout Cup, cementing their relationship as one of the most decorated clubs in EIHL history. Part of the Odyssey family, the Giants call The SSE Arena, Belfast home and have brought high energy ice hockey to millions of fans over the last 25 years.
For more information on the Belfast Giants, go to www.belfastgiants.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as future, anticipate, believe, should, estimate, expect, intend, may, will, plan, goal, project, hope, trend, target, opportunity, and similar words or expressions, or by references to typical outcomes. Fastenal's operational goals, partnerships, projects, plans, pace, aspirations, commitments, and strategies are long-term and aspirational and by their nature include forward-looking statements. As such, no forward looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including those described in Fastenal's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. Fastenal undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements
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Fastenal and the Belfast Giants recently entered into a sponsorship agreement. Gabe Bast, Defenseman for the Belfast Giants and Steve Thornton, Sports Director for The Odyssey Trust, pose in front of Fastenal’s rink board at The SSE Arena, Belfast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved legislation Thursday aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects that now take five or more years to complete, as lawmakers seek to meet growing demand for electricity and other forms of energy.
The bill, dubbed the SPEED Act, would also limit judicial review as Congress seeks to enact the most significant change in decades to the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law that requires federal agencies to consider a project’s possible environmental impacts before it is approved.
The bill was approved, 221-196, and now goes to the Senate.
Republicans and many Democrats believe the 55-year-old environmental policy law has become mired in red tape that routinely results in years-long delays for major projects. The law requires detailed analysis for major projects and allows for public comments before approvals are issued. A recent study found that environmental reviews often total nearly 600 pages and take nearly five years to complete.
The House bill would place statutory limits on environmental reviews, broaden the scope of actions that don’t require review and set clear deadlines. It also limits who can bring legal challenges and legal remedies that courts can impose.
“The SPEED Act is a focused, bipartisan effort to restore common sense and accountability to federal permitting,'' said Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, the bill's chief sponsor.
While NEPA was passed “with the best of intentions,” it has become unwieldly in the decades since, said Westerman, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee and has long pushed for permitting reform.
"Unfortunately, what was meant to facilitate responsible development has been twisted into a bureaucratic bottleneck that delays investments in the infrastructure and technologies that make our country run,'' Westerman said Thursday on the House floor.
Democrats agreed that the permitting process has become unwieldy, but said the House bill does not address the real causes of delay and undercuts public input and participation while overly restricting judicial review.
“The SPEED Act treats environmental reviews as a nuisance rather than a tool to prevent costly, harmful mistakes," said California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources panel.
“Weakening environmental review won’t fix permitting challenges (and) won’t help us build the clean energy future that we need,” Huffman said. "Gutting NEPA only invites more risk, more mistakes, more litigation, more damage to communities that already face too many environmental burdens.”
Eleven Democrats voted for the bill, while one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, opposed it.
Huffman and other critics also complained that the bill could harm wind and solar projects that ae being shut down by the Trump administration. A last-minute change this week allows the administration to continue to block some offshore wind projects, bending to demands by conservatives who oppose offshore wind.
The American Clean Power Association, which represents wind developers, pulled its support for the bill because of the changes, which were demanded by Republican Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey.
The GOP amendment “fundamentally changed legislation that represented genuine bipartisan progress on permitting reform,'' said Jason Grumet, the group's CEO. “It’s disappointing that a partisan amendment .... has now jeopardized that progress, turning what should have been a win for American energy into another missed opportunity.”
Harris, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, defended the change, which he said “will protect legal actions the Trump administration has taken thus far to combat the Biden offshore wind agenda,” including a project in Maryland that the administration has moved to block.
Westerman called the change minor and said that without it, "we probably would not have gotten permitting reform done.”
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, the bill's co-sponsor, said lawmakers from both parties have long agreed that “America’s broken permitting system is delaying investments in the basics we need — energy, transportation and housing.”
Support for the measure "gives me hope that Congress is finally ready to take the win'' on permitting reform, Golden said.
Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hailed the vote.
“Permitting reform is not just a business issue — it is a national priority,'' said Rodney Davis, senior vice president for government affairs.
“Delays in project approvals hinder economic development, increase costs for consumers and undermine America’s ability to build and maintain critical infrastructure," Davis said. “Modernizing this process will enable timely construction of projects that deliver affordable and reliable energy ... expand broadband connectivity (and) strengthen our ability to compete in the global race for AI innovation."
Environmental groups said the bill undermines a fundamental environmental law while empowering the Trump administration to quickly permit polluting projects without adequate review.
“We urgently need to build the infrastructure necessary to address the climate crisis and to transition to a clean energy economy, but this bill is not the solution," said Stephen Schima, a senior lawyer for Earthjustice Action.
“Far from helping build the clean energy projects of the future, the SPEED Act will only result in an abundance of contaminated air and water, dirty projects and chronic illnesses, with fewer opportunities to hold polluters accountable in court," he said.
House approval of the permitting measure shifts focus to the Senate, where a broader deal that includes changes to the Clean Water Act to facilitate pipeline projects and transmission lines is being considered.
Democrats, including Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, also are pursuing legislation to make it harder for President Donald Trump to cancel permits for clean-energy projects.
FILE - Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., speaks as the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure works to advance the Water Resources Development Act of 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
FILE - Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., center, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, delivers remarks as the House Rules Committee prepares the GOP signature energy package, the "Lower Energy Costs Act," for action on the floor, at the Capitol in Washington, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - Cars drive past data centers that house computer servers and hardware required to support modern internet use, such as artificial intelligence, in Ashburn, Virginia, July 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
