Biden administration renews environmental rules reversed by Trump | Donald Trump | NEPA | Trump administration

The White House announced this week that it will restore environmental regulations that were disabled during the Trump administration.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump took steps to reverse Nixon-era provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in an effort to cut red tape and make it easier to complete infrastructure projects.

“America cannot compete and prosper if a bureaucratic system prevents us from building what we need,” Trump said at the time, calling the federal approval process “shockingly slow and cumbersome.”

The Biden Administration a rule ended on tuesday that reinstates a requirement for federal agencies to rigorously assess all the environmental impacts of their decisions, including major construction projects like highways, pipelines, and oil wells.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) said the new rule, which will take effect at the end of May, will resolve challenges for government agencies and confusion for the general public created by Trump-era politics. .

“Reestablishing these basic safeguards for the community will provide regulatory certainty, reduce conflict and help ensure projects are built right the first time,” CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory said in a statement. “Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help projects build faster, be more resilient and provide greater benefits to people who live nearby.”

The rule change also restores the government’s authority to determine the “purpose and necessity” of a proposed project and establishes NEPA regulations “as a floor rather than a ceiling,” according to the White House statement.

The CEQ says it also plans to propose a second phase of changes to the NEPA rules to “provide further improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental review processes and reflect the administration’s commitment to achieving environmental justice and addressing climate change.” climate”.

The Biden administration’s move has found support from environmental groups.

“We are encouraged to see the Biden administration take action to restore this critical environmental protection. NEPA plays a critical role in keeping our communities and environment healthy and safe, and Donald Trump’s attempts to weaken NEPA were clearly nothing more than a gift to corporate polluters,” said Leslie Fields, NEPA National Policy Director. Sierra Club, in a statement.

However, Republicans in Congress expressed their concerns. Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR), a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said the White House action would “weaponize” NEPA by making it more unwieldy and more bureaucratic.

“At a time when we should be rallying around bipartisan ways to lower gas prices, rein in skyrocketing inflation, and fix the supply chain crisis, President Biden is sadly reinstating archaic NEPA regulations that only they will create delays and red tape and fuel activist litigation,” Westerman said.

The rule change comes as the Biden administration is busy planning projects and allocating funds from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, which Biden signed last fall.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this article.

With information from the Associated Press.

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