White House proposes restoring key parts of landmark environmental law, reversing Trump

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The White House proposed restoring parts of one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws Wednesday, requiring agencies to conduct a climate analysis of major projects and give affected communities greater input into the process. If finalized, the move to change how the government reviews pipelines, highways and other projects under the National Environmental Policy Act would reverse a significant rollback by the Trump administration. While the proposal won praise from environmentalists, it came under criticism from developers and could make it harder to upgrade the aging bridges and roads President Biden has pledged to rebuild.

Brenda Mallory, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement that the changes would not delay major projects because they would make it easier to forge a consensus on how they would be built. “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,” she said. “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.”

Mallory added that the move would restore the law’s focus on climate change, a top diplomatic priority for Biden ahead of a United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, next month. In addition, the White House said the proposed rule would encourage agencies to study alternatives to projects that face opposition from affected communities, and it would clarify that the law’s requirements are “a floor, rather than a ceiling" when it comes to environmental reviews. Chad Whiteman, vice president for environment and regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute, said the Biden proposal would delay the completion of infrastructure projects at a time when Congress is sparring over how to pass a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan plan to upgrade the country’s roads, bridges and ports.

“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,” he said in a statement. “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.” Last year, President Donald Trump overhauled the way agencies applied the National Environmental Policy Act, known as NEPA, on the grounds that it imposed too many costs and requirements on developers. The law requires the federal government to analyze the impact of a major project or federal action on the environment — and to seek public input — before approving it.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/06/national-environmental-policy-act-white-house/

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Good.

I would posit what is a mini-disaster off the coast of California is an example at why environmental impact studies need to really be done to include realistic scenarios given the suggested cause for that spill was an "anchor from a ship" that may have snagged that pipe, causing a 13" "gash" in it, allowing the oil to leak out.

[LT Barclay]

1. Can we finally throw in restoring ESA protection for wolves at the same time?

[BumRushDaShow]

2. They are apparently reviewing it

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037347160/hunting-wolves-endangered-tribes-us-protection

[Bayard]

8. I had read parts of this in other articles

But this one really makes me sick.

"Gianforte (MT governor) trapped and killed a wolf in February near Yellowstone National Park. He later received a warning from wildlife officials because he had failed to take a mandated trapper education course in violation of state hunting regulations."

What is it with rethuglicans and killing things? And a year is too long to wait to decide whether to re-list them.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Unfortunately

the federal government has "processes" - and in this case, it also involves promulgating regulations in addition to the re-list, which need to be drafted and then published in the Federal Register for some period of time to get comments, and then further decisions would be made about to alter/revise the regulation content and publish again for comment.

In the meantime you would probably have the 2 impacted agencies try to do current surveys of populations of the wildlife needing protection to have the justification for which level of protection is needed.

This is all part of the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/16/chapter-35

So for example, the U.S. Fisheries & Wildlife Service shows how they handle Sect. 4 (listings) - https://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/section-4.html

[LT Barclay]

10. It stinks, but they must be trying to cross every T and dot every I to avoid court challenges.

[LT Barclay]

11. Cowardice and weakness. They will never feel like a man, and killing things they regard as strong

helps them feel powerful.
Republicans are a sad and psychotic lot, they boot-lick anyone they see as more powerful and recognizing their obsequious behavior, try to compensate by brutalizing anything they can.

[RobertDevereaux]

3. Undo EVERYTHING that bastard did!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. THey have been working through it

piece by piece. Thankfully there were apparently teams put in place who have been combing through all the bullshit that was done and are working through the strategies needed to repeal and replace.

[RobertDevereaux]

5. Wonderful to hear that. Thanks!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. The Democrats in Congress are also doing the same

for those items that fall under the Congressional Review Act (where they can repeal Rules that have gone into effect) -

https://sensiblesafeguards.org/cra-tracker-2021/

[ffr]

7. THIS

Whatever it was. Put it back to the way it was and/or strengthen it!

Then purge any of the people who were complicit with the policy or action. Get the turds out of the punchbowl!