Trump Administration Recommends Evisceration of U.S. Core Environmental Protection Law
Why would anyone want an environmental review of projects that have the largest potential environmental impact? That would suggest that we apply common sense, instead of letting corruption run rampant.
From the New York Times: (The suggested upheaval in environmental benchmark law) will ease approval of major energy and infrastructure projects without detailed environmental review or consideration of climate change.
Many of the changes to the law — the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, a landmark measure that touches nearly every significant construction project in the country — had been long sought by the oil and gas industry as well as trade unions, which have argued that the review process is lengthy, cumbersome and used by environmental activists to drag out legal disputes and kill infrastructure projects.
Under the law, major federal projects like bridges, highways, pipelines or power plants that will have a significant impact on the environment require a review, or environmental impact statement, outlining potential consequences. The proposed new rules would narrow the range of projects that require such a review and impose strict new deadlines on completing assessments.
Whether or not this will hold up in court remains to be seen, given that this falls under the Environmental Policy Act, requiring that “all the environmental consequences of a project be taken into account, and that core requirement cannot be changed by fiat.”
In any case, perhaps Trump thinks that impeachment and Iran will distract us from environmental protection; perhaps it’s the other way around. What’s certain is that what he said in this conversation is 100% correct: when asked, “How do you weather the storm,” he replied, “I am the storm.” Time for the storm to blow over, while we still have a life-supporting planet here.
