White House actions will speed approvals for highways, railways, pipelines, and mining projects
The Trump White House is taking steps to overhaul the federal environmental permitting regime, which experts have criticized as bureaucratic and pegged as a key reason for slow infrastructure and energy development.
In a 37-page report first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the White House Council on Environmental Quality outlined how it will revamp permitting, mainly by modernizing current antiquated government systems. The federal government, for example, still relies on a paper-based process during environmental reviews—the White House will now begin using a “digital-first” process.
The council added that, under its technical reforms, federal agencies conducting environmental reviews for projects will make their permitting timelines readily available for the public to see and track. Thomas Shedd, a top official at the General Services Administration, predicted the reforms would accelerate permitting timelines from taking years to just weeks or months.
The actions will impact everything from highways and railway projects to pipelines, green energy development, and mining projects. The Trump approach stands in contrast to the Biden administration, which sought to add more requirements for permitting such projects.
“The Trump administration is working tirelessly to implement innovation-driven environmental review and permitting reforms to eliminate needless delays that cripple the growth of the U.S. economy, replacing outdated technology with efficient, speedier solutions,” added Katherine Scarlett, the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s chief of staff.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has made permitting reform a top priority as part of its efforts to rapidly fix deteriorating infrastructure and develop energy projects. “We need to drill more, map more, mine more, and build more—all while innovating faster than our global competitors,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said last month.
Overall, according to federal data, federal agencies take two to three years on average to complete environmental reviews. And in many cases, reviews can drag on for more than four years, sometimes even taking more than a decade to complete. Environmental reviews often involve several different federal agencies, which can cause delays and create backlogs.
The Free Beacon reported in December that an Idaho rare earth mining project deemed vital for national security has waited 14 years for its permits. At least five separate federal agencies conducted lengthy environmental reviews for the project.
Both Democrats and Republicans, meanwhile, have backed efforts to enact permitting reform to accelerate both green energy and fossil fuel energy projects, but those efforts have largely fizzled out in Congress thanks to significant opposition from powerful climate groups.
Still, industry groups and advocates agree that more power projects need to be developed and quickly permitted to keep up with rapidly rising electricity demand and mass policy-driven fossil fuel retirements. Utility companies nationwide have announced coal-fired plant closures that would take 9,356 megawatts of power off the grid, even as top grid watchdogs warn such retirements could create catastrophic power shortages and blackouts.
“A lot of these climate and environmental groups have basically become special interest groups. They reflect narrow interests, rather than what’s good and true on these issues, and they’ve become reflexive NIMBYs that oppose anything really,” Chris Barnard, the president of the right-leaning American Conservation Coalition Action, previously told the Free Beacon.
“And it’s not just fossil fuels. There’s examples of them opposing clean energy, whether it’s wind and solar or nuclear or geothermal or hydro—they basically oppose everything. They don’t want us to build anything,” he said.
The White House’s actions Friday come one day after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that federal regulators are able to narrow the scope of factors they review when conducting environmental reviews for proposed projects.
Read the full article here
