Released January 13, 2020 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Trump administration unveiled a proposal it said would "modernize" the nation's bedrock environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), last Thursday, but critics said the draft changes would gut the 50-year old law and vowed to do everything possible to block the changes.
The 47-page proposal was published in the Federal Register on January 10, the day after the president, cabinet members and business and union leaders discussed the plan in a White House media briefing. Public comments will be accepted until March 10, and public hearings are scheduled for Denver (February 11) and Washington, D.C. (February 25). The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) (Washington, D.C.) is the agency spearheading the notice of proposed rulemaking. NEPA has not been significantly revised since 1978.
NEPA litigation has stalled the construction of oil and gas pipelines, Oil and Gas production, bridges, roads, electric power projects, coal mines and airports, among other types of projects. Construction of the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline has been delayed for years due to litigation arising from NEPA. Other proposed pipelines, including the Mountain Valley gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia that EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) wants to build, have been stymied by NEPA.
Federal courts have rejected attempts by developers and the Trump administration to get around NEPA requirements that a full-blown environmental impact statement be performed for major energy or infrastructure projects.
In outlining his administration's plans last Thursday, the president said, "In the past, many of America's most critical infrastructure projects have been tied up and bogged down by an outrageously slow and burdensome federal approval process. ... These endless delays waste money, keep projects from breaking ground, and deny jobs to our nation's incredible workers."
He described the proposal as "another historic step in our campaign to slash job-killing regulations and improve the quality of life for all of our citizens. ...From day one, my administration has made fixing this regulatory nightmare a top priority. We want to build new roads, bridges, tunnels, highways bigger, better, faster, and we want to build them at less cost."
The president said the proposed rule would "completely overhaul the dysfunctional bureaucratic system that has created these massive obstructions. Now, we're going to have very strong regulation, but it's going to go very quickly."
The proposal would:
Speaking alongside the president, CEQ Chief Neumayr said, "Nothing in the proposal would eliminate the protections that Congress has enacted to safeguard our environment and the American people."
The CEQ found that the average NEPA review took 4.5 years to conduct, with highway projects taking an average of seven years. The results of those reviews often ran to hundreds of pages. It often takes longer to complete an EIS than it does to actually build the project in question, administration sources told the media last Thursday.
Neumayr referenced a 2016 study by the American Society of Civil Engineers that graded the quality of U.S. infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports, the electric grid, water-treatment plants and airports. On an A through F grading system, the group said "Since 1998, America's infrastructure has earned persistent D averages, and the failure to close the investment gap with needed maintenance and improvements has continued."
Responding to a reporter's question last Thursday, Trump said he did not deny the reality of global warming: "No, no, not at all. ... Nothing is a hoax about that. It's a very serious subject. ... The environment is very important to me. I'm a big believer in that word: the environment. I want clean air. I want clean water. And I also want jobs, though. I don't want to close up our industry."
The proposal, long sought by the oil & gas industry, manufacturers and labor groups, was praised by leaders of those groups last week.
But the proposal came under withering criticism from Democratic lawmakers, environmental lawyers, urban planners and leaders of environmental groups.
Senator Maria Cantwell, ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, said "This NEPA rewrite favors big polluters and corporate profits over balanced, science-based decision making. We need to make smarter environmental decisions, not roll back the safeguards we already have."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the new proposal was an effort by the administration to further curtail federal efforts to confront climate change. "These new guidelines undermine critical building requirements that ensure that our communities are able to withstand the growing threat posed by the climate crisis. This means more polluters will be right there next to the water supply of our children. That's a public health issue."
Notre Dame Law School Professor Bruce Huber told Reuters, "If the regulations announced today drive agencies to diminish the extent or quality of their reporting, federal courts may very well conclude that their reports do not comply with the law."
Richard L. Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University, told The New York Times he didn't believe the proposal would hold up in court. NEPA requires that all the environmental consequences of a project be taken into account, and that core requirement cannot be changed by fiat. "A regulation can't change the requirements of a statute as interpreted by the courts," Mr. Revesz said.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.
The 47-page proposal was published in the Federal Register on January 10, the day after the president, cabinet members and business and union leaders discussed the plan in a White House media briefing. Public comments will be accepted until March 10, and public hearings are scheduled for Denver (February 11) and Washington, D.C. (February 25). The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) (Washington, D.C.) is the agency spearheading the notice of proposed rulemaking. NEPA has not been significantly revised since 1978.
NEPA litigation has stalled the construction of oil and gas pipelines, Oil and Gas production, bridges, roads, electric power projects, coal mines and airports, among other types of projects. Construction of the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline has been delayed for years due to litigation arising from NEPA. Other proposed pipelines, including the Mountain Valley gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia that EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) wants to build, have been stymied by NEPA.
Federal courts have rejected attempts by developers and the Trump administration to get around NEPA requirements that a full-blown environmental impact statement be performed for major energy or infrastructure projects.
In outlining his administration's plans last Thursday, the president said, "In the past, many of America's most critical infrastructure projects have been tied up and bogged down by an outrageously slow and burdensome federal approval process. ... These endless delays waste money, keep projects from breaking ground, and deny jobs to our nation's incredible workers."
He described the proposal as "another historic step in our campaign to slash job-killing regulations and improve the quality of life for all of our citizens. ...From day one, my administration has made fixing this regulatory nightmare a top priority. We want to build new roads, bridges, tunnels, highways bigger, better, faster, and we want to build them at less cost."
The president said the proposed rule would "completely overhaul the dysfunctional bureaucratic system that has created these massive obstructions. Now, we're going to have very strong regulation, but it's going to go very quickly."
The proposal would:
- Limit to two years the amount of time allowed to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS). Less rigorous environmental assessments (EA) will be completed in one year.
- Broaden the types of projects that could be excluded from NEPA review.
- Require that any reviews be confined to the direct impacts of a proposed project, and not "cumulative impacts" that might be farther away or indirect, such as climate change. CEQ Chair Mary Neumayr said the proposal would not prohibit considering a project's impact on climate change.
- Avoid duplication by facilitating use of documents required by other statutes or prepared by state, tribal, or local agencies.
- Place one federal agency, CEQ, in charge of overseeing the review process, in contrast to the current situation where multiple agencies have oversight authority.
Speaking alongside the president, CEQ Chief Neumayr said, "Nothing in the proposal would eliminate the protections that Congress has enacted to safeguard our environment and the American people."
The CEQ found that the average NEPA review took 4.5 years to conduct, with highway projects taking an average of seven years. The results of those reviews often ran to hundreds of pages. It often takes longer to complete an EIS than it does to actually build the project in question, administration sources told the media last Thursday.
Neumayr referenced a 2016 study by the American Society of Civil Engineers that graded the quality of U.S. infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports, the electric grid, water-treatment plants and airports. On an A through F grading system, the group said "Since 1998, America's infrastructure has earned persistent D averages, and the failure to close the investment gap with needed maintenance and improvements has continued."
Responding to a reporter's question last Thursday, Trump said he did not deny the reality of global warming: "No, no, not at all. ... Nothing is a hoax about that. It's a very serious subject. ... The environment is very important to me. I'm a big believer in that word: the environment. I want clean air. I want clean water. And I also want jobs, though. I don't want to close up our industry."
The proposal, long sought by the oil & gas industry, manufacturers and labor groups, was praised by leaders of those groups last week.
But the proposal came under withering criticism from Democratic lawmakers, environmental lawyers, urban planners and leaders of environmental groups.
Senator Maria Cantwell, ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, said "This NEPA rewrite favors big polluters and corporate profits over balanced, science-based decision making. We need to make smarter environmental decisions, not roll back the safeguards we already have."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the new proposal was an effort by the administration to further curtail federal efforts to confront climate change. "These new guidelines undermine critical building requirements that ensure that our communities are able to withstand the growing threat posed by the climate crisis. This means more polluters will be right there next to the water supply of our children. That's a public health issue."
Notre Dame Law School Professor Bruce Huber told Reuters, "If the regulations announced today drive agencies to diminish the extent or quality of their reporting, federal courts may very well conclude that their reports do not comply with the law."
Richard L. Revesz, a professor of environmental law at New York University, told The New York Times he didn't believe the proposal would hold up in court. NEPA requires that all the environmental consequences of a project be taken into account, and that core requirement cannot be changed by fiat. "A regulation can't change the requirements of a statute as interpreted by the courts," Mr. Revesz said.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.
