Mike Lee (R-UT) Tries To Dodge EIS For Powell Pipeline For St. George UT & Its 13 Golf Courses

[hatrack]

A push by Utah's U.S. Senator Mike Lee to pass an amendment to the INVEST in America Act — which some see as a thinly veiled attempt to bypass requirements for federal environmental review in order to fast-track the Lake Powell Pipeline project — failed by a narrow vote margin in Congress Wednesday night.

Forty-seven Republican Senators voted in support of the amendment, which introduces a water infrastructure provision into a transportation bill. But fifty votes were cast against it, including those from 48 Democratic Senators and both Senators from Maine, one of whom is registered as a Republican and the other as an Independent. Two Republican Senators and one Independent did not vote. The amendment would have required a supermajority vote of 60% to pass.

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“Pipeline proponents at Lake Powell will do whatever they can to try to bring their boondoggle to life with as little public input as possible," Kyle Roerink, Executive Director of the Great Basin Water Network, said in a press release. "As the West’s drought continues to siphon water away from the river, we need our bedrock laws to remain intact in order to protect our communities, our resources, and our futures in the nation’s driest states.” The Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD) — the main proponent of the Lake Powell Pipeline project along with the Utah Division of Water Resources — however, responded to a request for comment about their stance on Lee's amendment by stating that "there’s not any correlation between H.R. 3684 and the Lake Powell Pipeline."

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In light of these obstacles facing the Lake Powell Pipeline project and despite WCWCD's assertions that there is no connection, environmentalists suspect that the proposed amendments to the INVEST in America Act, which include more than just the one voted down on Wednesday, aim to weaken the federal environmental review process intended to estimate and manage negative impacts of such projects by expediting or exempting them from the NEPA process and shifting regulatory and permitting decisions to the states. This would not be the first time the GOP has taken steps to dismantle parts of the NEPA environmental review process in order to pave the way for more infrastructure projects. Last summer, a group of environmental and outdoors organizations sued the Trump Administration over its efforts to loosen federal requirements that agencies consider input from the public before breaking ground on new projects.

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https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2021/08/06/amendment-potentially-fast-track-lake-powell-pipeline-voted-down-congress/5512309001/

https://www.stgeorgeutahgolf.com/list-of-st-george-golf-courses/