The Biden administration will announce Tuesday that it is restoring parts of a bedrock environmental law, once again requiring that climate impacts be considered and local communities have input before federal agencies approve highways, pipelines and other major projects.
The requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act were removed by President Donald J. Trump, who complained that they slowed down the development of mines, road expansions and similar projects.
According to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the final rule would require federal agencies to conduct an analysis of the greenhouse gases that could be emitted over the lifetime of a proposed project, as well as how climate change might affect new highways, bridges and other infrastructure. Agencies would have to give communities a greater role in the approval process under the rule.
The regulation restored basic community safeguards that the Trump administration had eliminated, according to the chairwoman of the council.
She said that patching the holes in the environmental review process will help projects get built faster, be more resilient, and provide more benefits to people who live nearby.
President Biden's climate agenda is facing challenges from Congress and the courts. The president is under pressure to increase oil production in order to lower gas prices. Last week the Interior Department said it would begin offering oil and gas drilling leases on public lands and waters despite Mr. Biden's campaign promise to end new leases. Senior administration officials said this week that the leasing decision was necessary because of a court ruling, and that it had raised federal royalties that companies must pay to drill.
Mr. Biden will be in Seattle on Saturday, where he is expected to speak about the clean energy initiatives that Congress authorized last year as part of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
The new rule won't have major immediate impacts since the Biden administration was already weighing the climate change impacts of proposed projects. It would force future administrations to abide by the process or undertake a lengthy regulatory process and possibly legal challenges to reverse it.
The National Environmental Policy Act was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon after several environmental disasters, including a crude oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif.
It requires federal agencies to assess the potential environmental impacts of proposed major federal actions before allowing them to proceed. Agencies don't have to reject projects that might make climate change worse.
The government was not allowed to consider the ways in which proposed new dams or pipelines might increase emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that are warming the planet to dangerous levels. Agencies were required to analyze only the impacts that were reasonably foreseeable. Mr. Trump said the change would eliminate mountains of red tape that had delayed projects across the country.
Agencies would have to consider the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of a decision, including the effect a new project would have on neighborhoods already burdened by pollution.
The administration's changes encourage agencies to study alternatives to projects that are opposed by local communities, and it says the law requires a floor when it comes to environmental reviews.
Republicans and some business groups argue that additional reviews would delay the development of badly needed infrastructure.
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association wrote in comments to the Council on Environmental Quality that federal reviews for many transportation projects take five to seven years, with some lasting as long as 14 years. It argued that the new rule would make things worse.
The group wrote in a letter to the agency that the current N.E.P.A. process will lead to significant costs to the taxpayers.
The move was embraced by Democrats and environmental groups.
Grijalva said the Trump administration had stripped and gutted environmental protections.
He said in a statement that he was glad the administration recognized how egregiously wrong the actions were and was moving forward to restore the protections.
The new rule would give federal agencies the authority to work with communities on alternative approaches to projects. The N.E.P.A. process is one of the most important tools available to local communities to try to stop projects that could cause significant harm.
The first phase of a two-step regulatory process is represented by the final rule. In the coming months, the administration will propose another set of changes to the law.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
