Joe Biden reinstates environmental impact studies
Since his arrival at the White House, US President Joe Biden has been keen to reverse the reforms carried out by his predecessor Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Tuesday, April 19, 2022.
Getty Images via AFP
Joe Biden’s government announced on Tuesday that it would restore the obligation for federal agencies to study all the environmental consequences of the construction of major infrastructure projects, including on climate change, reversing a reform carried out in 2020 by Donald Trump. .
The announcement concerns a law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), according to which any major construction project in the United States – highways, oil pipelines… – must be preceded by an environmental impact study, carried out by the appropriate federal agency.
In 2020, the administration of Republican President Donald Trump had limited its application, including the need to consider a project’s “cumulative” impacts (such as contribution to climate change), arguing that such studies were too complex and took too of time. The Biden administration, which since taking office has reversed many environmental decisions made by Mr. Trump, has thus chosen to restore the previous rules.
No deadlines
Federal agencies will again have to assess the “direct, indirect and cumulative consequences of an action,” the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) wrote in a statement. This includes assessing “comprehensively the impacts on climate change”, as well as “the additional pollution released for neighborhoods already overwhelmed by polluted air or dirty water”, he specifies.
Federal agencies will also be able to once again study “alternative approaches likely to minimize the environmental and public health cost”, in consultation with local populations. The White House promises that this will not cause additional delays for construction projects under consideration.
This measure will “help ensure that projects are built in the right way from the start,” said Brenda Mallory, head of the CEQ, quoted in the press release. The Democratic government has also indicated that it will “in the coming months” propose additional changes to this law.
“An essential step forward”
The latter will have to intervene “as quickly as possible” and be “the strongest possible”, commented Leslie Fields of the environmental NGO Sierra Club, while welcoming that this “basic environmental protection” has now been restored. The government’s announcement is “an essential step forward,” said Abigail Dillen of Earthjustice, but “the Biden administration can’t stop there.”
The government of Joe Biden, which has made the fight against climate change one of its priorities, has in particular attracted strong criticism in recent days from environmental associations, after the announcement of the resumption of sales of concessions for the hydrocarbon exploitation on federal lands.
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