Trump Order Waives Environmental Review for Big Construction Projects

(Photo: The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline shown in 2007. Credit: Dave Houseknecht, USGS, Flickr Creative Commons)

by | Jun 5, 2020

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Trump Order Waives Environmental Review for Big Construction Projects

(Photo: The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline shown in 2007. Credit: Dave Houseknecht, USGS, Flickr Creative Commons)

Citing the current “economic emergency” due to the pandemic, President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that allows federal agencies to waive environmental review for approval of major construction projects.

The order expedites the permitting process for projects such as oil and gas pipelines, drilling, highway construction, and mining, according to the Washington Post and the New York Times. As Juliet Eilperin and Jeff Stein explained in the Post, the executive order allows projects to proceed without following the requirements of laws that include the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

“Waiving these requirements will ‘expedite construction of highways and other projects designed for environmental, energy, transportation, natural resource, and other uses,’ one official said in an email,” they wrote, referring to a senior Trump administration official.

In January, well before the covid-19 crisis hit the United States, the Trump administration proposed changes to NEPA that would speed up the approval process for infrastructure projects.

“Many of the White House’s proposed changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act have been supported by business groups that contend the law has delayed or blocked projects like laying out oil pipelines and building dams and mines,” CNBC reported at the time.

Environmental groups remain critical of the president’s push to dismantle NEPA, which was first signed into law by President Nixon in 1970. “NEPA is the federal law that provides communities a voice when destructive projects threaten their landscape, lives, and livelihoods,” the Southern Environmental Law Center posted on their website. “It also requires developers to consider less destructive options.”

Possible Effects on Large Renewable Energy Projects

NEPA has affected the development of renewable energy projects in the United States.

In an opinion article for Utility Dive, the executive director at the nonpartisan energy policy group Energy Fairness Paul Griffin pointed to the delays Warren Buffet’s PacifiCorp experienced in siting the Gateway West project. Griffin called the 1,000-mile high-voltage transmission power line from Wyoming to Idaho “a critical infrastructure upgrade for the promotion of renewable energy development in the West and the overall stability of the Bulk Electric System.”

The federal permitting process started in May 2007 and the final permits required by NEPA were signed in 2018, Griffin noted. He added that environmental review for a proposed solar plant can take three to five years, citing information from the Solar Energy Industries Association, which opposes changes to the federal law.

“Reforming NEPA is a winning move not just for industry and jobs, but for integrating renewables into the grid and ensuring that affordable and reliable energy is available when customers need it,” Griffin argued.

However, legal experts caution that, like many Trump administration environmental policy changes, the new executive order is likely to be challenged in court. A speedier review process for major construction projects might not happen, either.

“It is unclear how the directive will affect individual projects, especially since developers are often wary of legal challenges they could face from environmental or public interest groups,” the Post journalists wrote.

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