Trump Is Completely Remaking A Law Enviros Often Use To Stymie Oil Pipeline Construction | The Daily Caller
Trump Is Completely Remaking A Law Enviros Often Use To Stymie Oil Pipeline Construction
Trump Is Completely Remaking A Law Enviros Often Use To Stymie Oil Pipeline Construction
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President Donald Trump announced
Thursday his plans to dramatically change an environmental law activist
groups and their attorneys often use to wrap oil projects in years of
bureaucratic red tape.
Trump plans to exempt privately funded
projects from undergoing environmental reviews, a significant change
that would make building mines and pipelines much easier, The Washington
Post reported. Energy producers are cheering the move.
The
changes will narrow the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA), a 50-year-old law requiring agencies to assess the impact a big
project could cause to the environment. The administration directed the
Daily Caller News Foundation to the White House website, where Trump
explained his decision Thursday.
“America is a nation of builders,” the president said at the White House while explaining his decision.
“Yet
today it can take more than 10 years to get a permit to build a simple
road,” he said. “It’s big government at its absolute worst.”
It can often take years for a project to move forward while going through the NEPA process.
Instead of taking a decade, the new rule will allow projects to go forward after less than two years, Trump noted.
Environmentalists have used NEPA in recent years to defend against what they believe is Trump’s willingness to hasten oil pipeline construction. (RELATED: The Protests Over The Dakota Access Pipeline Explained)
Environmentalist groups, for instance, said the president violated
the NEPA in 2017 when he approved the Keystone XL pipeline, which the
administration based on a three-year-old analysis conducted when oil
prices were more than double what they are now.
NEPA has also stood in the way of Trump’s plans to build a border wall along the southern border. Trump made building a giant border wall stretching from coast to coast part of his campaign message during the presidential election. The president has railed against the law in the past.
The president noted in a press statement
on NEPA’s 50th anniversary on Jan. 1 that the law “can increase costs,
derail important projects, and threaten jobs for American workers and
labor union members.”
Unions and energy producers are calling the
president’s move a long-needed change. Terry O’Sullivan, the general
president of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA),
told WaPo that the rule has impacted union jobs.
“For the
hard-working members of LIUNA, who have had their livelihoods put on
hold as infrastructure projects become mired in a review process that is
needlessly long, complex, and lacks transparency, the administration’s
anticipated NEPA reforms are a welcome change,” O’Sullivan told WaPo.
Thursday his plans to dramatically change an environmental law activist
groups and their attorneys often use to wrap oil projects in years of
bureaucratic red tape.
Trump plans to exempt privately funded
projects from undergoing environmental reviews, a significant change
that would make building mines and pipelines much easier, The Washington
Post reported. Energy producers are cheering the move.
changes will narrow the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA), a 50-year-old law requiring agencies to assess the impact a big
project could cause to the environment. The administration directed the
Daily Caller News Foundation to the White House website, where Trump
explained his decision Thursday.
“America is a nation of builders,” the president said at the White House while explaining his decision.
“Yet
today it can take more than 10 years to get a permit to build a simple
road,” he said. “It’s big government at its absolute worst.”
It can often take years for a project to move forward while going through the NEPA process.
People
protest against President Donald Trump’s executive order fast-tracking
the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines in Los Angeles,
California, U.S., March 10, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
protest against President Donald Trump’s executive order fast-tracking
the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines in Los Angeles,
California, U.S., March 10, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Environmentalist groups, for instance, said the president violated
the NEPA in 2017 when he approved the Keystone XL pipeline, which the
administration based on a three-year-old analysis conducted when oil
prices were more than double what they are now.
NEPA has also stood in the way of Trump’s plans to build a border wall along the southern border. Trump made building a giant border wall stretching from coast to coast part of his campaign message during the presidential election. The president has railed against the law in the past.
on NEPA’s 50th anniversary on Jan. 1 that the law “can increase costs,
derail important projects, and threaten jobs for American workers and
labor union members.”
Unions and energy producers are calling the
president’s move a long-needed change. Terry O’Sullivan, the general
president of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA),
told WaPo that the rule has impacted union jobs.
“For the
hard-working members of LIUNA, who have had their livelihoods put on
hold as infrastructure projects become mired in a review process that is
needlessly long, complex, and lacks transparency, the administration’s
anticipated NEPA reforms are a welcome change,” O’Sullivan told WaPo.
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