The Trump administration has finalized a plan to roll back regulations that implement the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which requires federal agencies to consider a project’s possible environmental impacts before it is approved.
The action Wednesday by the White House Council on Environmental Quality rescinds regulations related to NEPA environmental review, the Associated Press reported.
Katherine Scarlett, who leads the council, said in a statement that the directive will “slash needless layering of bureaucratic burden and restore common sense to the environmental review and permitting process.” She also said, “NEPA’s regulatory reign of terror has ended.”
The White House’s move lands as Congress considers legislation aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects while limiting judicial review under the environmental law.
Republicans and many Democrats have argued that NEPA, passed more than 50 years ago, has become mired in red tape and routinely produces yearslong delays for major projects. The law requires detailed analysis for such projects and allows for public comments before approvals are issued.
A bill approved by the Republican-controlled House would place statutory limits on environmental reviews, broaden the scope of actions that do not require review, and set clear deadlines, according to the AP report. The measure would also limit who can bring legal challenges and the legal remedies that courts can impose.
Democrats agree that the permitting process has become unwieldy, but they say the House bill undercuts public input and participation and overly restricts judicial review.
The permitting fight has intensified amid recent enforcement decisions, the AP report said. It noted that last month the administration suspended five major offshore wind projects on the East Coast on unspecified national security concerns.
Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said the administration’s “reckless and vindictive assault on wind energy” destroyed the trust needed to enact a bipartisan overhaul of the law.