Released October 08, 2021 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Biden administration this week moved to reverse changes made by the Trump administration to a bedrock federal environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) (Washington, D.C.) said the proposed changes would "restore community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions."
The move came ahead of a U.N. climate summit that starts at the end of this month, and after a year of violent weather extremes and natural disasters in the U.S. and around the world that many scientists say were caused, or made worse, by global warming.
Environmental groups welcomed the proposed changes to NEPA while industry groups had a more muted response. Importantly, the proposed changes required an analysis of how proposed projects could contribute to global warming.
On Wednesday, Brenda Mallory, chair of the CEQ, said, "As part of the Biden administration's whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis and confronting environmental injustice, CEQ is proposing to restore three core procedural provisions of the NEPA regulations to provide communities and decision makers with more complete information about proposed projects, their environmental and public health impacts and their alternatives."
Mallory said the changes made by the Trump administration to NEPA in 2020 "caused implementation challenges for agencies, and sowed confusion among stakeholders and the general public." The changes proposed October 6 by the Biden administration would "restore durability and regulatory certainty, cut down on conflict, deliver sounder results on the ground and aim to get more American workers on the job building our next generation of infrastructure," she said in a statement.
In changing NEPA in 2020, the Trump administration said it wanted to streamline a law that had not been fundamentally changed or updated in four decades, and had become an unwieldly obstacle blocking infrastructure projects. The then-president said he wanted to expedite the construction of projects that would secure U.S. "energy dominance." Critics said he was gutting one of the nation's foundational environmental-protection measures and giving industry a virtually unfettered ability to construct projects that would worsen climate change and pollution. For more on the Trump administration's changes to NEPA, see January 13, 2020, article - See You in Court? Litigation Likely as Trump Proposes Changes to Major Environmental Law, and July 17, 2020, article - Trump Administration Finalizes Changes to Major Environmental Law.
Mallory continued: "The basic community safeguards we are proposing to restore would help ensure that American infrastructure gets built right the first time, and delivers real benefits -- not harms -- to people who live nearby (proposed projects). Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help reduce conflict and litigation and help clear up some of the uncertainty that the previous administration's rule caused."
The CEQ said the changes proposed by the Biden administration would:
In a statement, Chad Whiteman, vice president for environment and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said, "By rolling back some of the most important updates to our antiquated permitting process, the Biden administration's new proposed NEPA rule will only serve to slow down building the infrastructure of the future. Important projects that address critical issues like improving access to public transit, adding more clean energy to the grid and expanding broadband access are languishing due to continued delays and that must change."
But Stephen Schima, a senior legislative counsel leading NEPA advocacy work for the environmental group Earthjustice (Washington, D.C.), had a very different take. "This proposal from CEQ is a positive first step toward restoring the integrity of NEPA and giving environmental justice communities the voice and the agency to determine what projects are built in their neighborhoods," he said in a statement. "This critical law has played an undeniable role in giving communities the legal recourse to fight for their access to clean air, clean water, and land free from contaminants and pollution.
"By reversing the Trump regulations that put polluter interests over those of the public, the Biden administration is demonstrating a willingness to listen to those on the frontlines of the climate crisis whose lives and livelihoods are on the line," he continued. "However, this rule is only a partial down payment on a more comprehensive and much-needed overhaul of the 2020 Trump regulations that sought to weaken NEPA and cut communities out of the decision-making process."
CEQ will take public comments on its October 6 changes at virtual meetings scheduled for October 19 and October 21. The draft rule was published October 7 in the Federal Register, and the 45-day comment period ends November 22, 2021.
The agency also said it was working on a separate set of broader "Phase 2" changes to NEPA "to help ensure full and fair public involvement in the environmental review process; meet the nation's environmental, climate change, and environmental justice challenges; provide regulatory certainty to stakeholders; and promote better decision-making consistent with NEPA's goals and requirements."
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.
The move came ahead of a U.N. climate summit that starts at the end of this month, and after a year of violent weather extremes and natural disasters in the U.S. and around the world that many scientists say were caused, or made worse, by global warming.
Environmental groups welcomed the proposed changes to NEPA while industry groups had a more muted response. Importantly, the proposed changes required an analysis of how proposed projects could contribute to global warming.
On Wednesday, Brenda Mallory, chair of the CEQ, said, "As part of the Biden administration's whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis and confronting environmental injustice, CEQ is proposing to restore three core procedural provisions of the NEPA regulations to provide communities and decision makers with more complete information about proposed projects, their environmental and public health impacts and their alternatives."
Mallory said the changes made by the Trump administration to NEPA in 2020 "caused implementation challenges for agencies, and sowed confusion among stakeholders and the general public." The changes proposed October 6 by the Biden administration would "restore durability and regulatory certainty, cut down on conflict, deliver sounder results on the ground and aim to get more American workers on the job building our next generation of infrastructure," she said in a statement.
In changing NEPA in 2020, the Trump administration said it wanted to streamline a law that had not been fundamentally changed or updated in four decades, and had become an unwieldly obstacle blocking infrastructure projects. The then-president said he wanted to expedite the construction of projects that would secure U.S. "energy dominance." Critics said he was gutting one of the nation's foundational environmental-protection measures and giving industry a virtually unfettered ability to construct projects that would worsen climate change and pollution. For more on the Trump administration's changes to NEPA, see January 13, 2020, article - See You in Court? Litigation Likely as Trump Proposes Changes to Major Environmental Law, and July 17, 2020, article - Trump Administration Finalizes Changes to Major Environmental Law.
Mallory continued: "The basic community safeguards we are proposing to restore would help ensure that American infrastructure gets built right the first time, and delivers real benefits -- not harms -- to people who live nearby (proposed projects). Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help reduce conflict and litigation and help clear up some of the uncertainty that the previous administration's rule caused."
The CEQ said the changes proposed by the Biden administration would:
- "Restore the requirement that federal agencies evaluate all the relevant environmental impacts of the decisions they are making. This proposed change would make clear that agencies must consider the 'direct,' 'indirect' and 'cumulative' impacts of a proposed decision, including by evaluating a full range of climate change impacts and assessing the consequences of releasing additional pollution in communities that are already overburdened by polluted air or dirty water."
- "Restore the full authority of agencies to work with communities to develop and analyze alternative approaches that could minimize environmental and public health costs. This proposed change would give agencies the flexibility to determine the 'purpose and need' of a proposed project based on a variety of factors and to work with project proponents and communities to mitigate or avoid environmental harms by analyzing common-sense alternatives. The 2020 NEPA rule limited federal agencies' ability to develop and consider alternative designs or approaches that do not fully align with the stated goals of the project's sponsor, often a private company."
- "Establish CEQ's NEPA regulations as a floor, rather than a ceiling, for the environmental review standards that federal agencies should be meeting. This proposal would restore the ability of federal agencies to tailor their NEPA procedures, consistent with the CEQ NEPA regulations, to help meet the specific needs of their agencies, the public and stakeholders."
In a statement, Chad Whiteman, vice president for environment and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said, "By rolling back some of the most important updates to our antiquated permitting process, the Biden administration's new proposed NEPA rule will only serve to slow down building the infrastructure of the future. Important projects that address critical issues like improving access to public transit, adding more clean energy to the grid and expanding broadband access are languishing due to continued delays and that must change."
But Stephen Schima, a senior legislative counsel leading NEPA advocacy work for the environmental group Earthjustice (Washington, D.C.), had a very different take. "This proposal from CEQ is a positive first step toward restoring the integrity of NEPA and giving environmental justice communities the voice and the agency to determine what projects are built in their neighborhoods," he said in a statement. "This critical law has played an undeniable role in giving communities the legal recourse to fight for their access to clean air, clean water, and land free from contaminants and pollution.
"By reversing the Trump regulations that put polluter interests over those of the public, the Biden administration is demonstrating a willingness to listen to those on the frontlines of the climate crisis whose lives and livelihoods are on the line," he continued. "However, this rule is only a partial down payment on a more comprehensive and much-needed overhaul of the 2020 Trump regulations that sought to weaken NEPA and cut communities out of the decision-making process."
CEQ will take public comments on its October 6 changes at virtual meetings scheduled for October 19 and October 21. The draft rule was published October 7 in the Federal Register, and the 45-day comment period ends November 22, 2021.
The agency also said it was working on a separate set of broader "Phase 2" changes to NEPA "to help ensure full and fair public involvement in the environmental review process; meet the nation's environmental, climate change, and environmental justice challenges; provide regulatory certainty to stakeholders; and promote better decision-making consistent with NEPA's goals and requirements."
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.
