White House completes plan to curb bedrock environmental law

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has finalized a plan to roll back regulations implementing a landmark environmental law that the White House says needlessly delays federal approvals for energy and infrastructure projects.

The action Wednesday by the White House Council on Environmental Quality rescinds regulations related to the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to consider a project’s possible environmental impacts before it is approved.

Katherine Scarlett, who leads the council, said in a statement that the directive will “slash needless layering of bureaucratic burden and restore common sense to the environmental review and permitting process.”

Under Trump, she added, "NEPA’s regulatory reign of terror has ended.”

The action comes as Congress considers legislation intended to speed up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects and limit judicial review under that law.

Republicans and many Democrats believe the 56-year-old law has become mired in red tape that routinely results in yearslong delays for major projects. The law requires detailed analysis for such projects and allows for public comments before approvals are issued.

A bill approved by the Republican-controlled House would place statutory limits on environmental reviews, broaden the scope of actions that do not require review and set clear deadlines. It also would limit who can bring legal challenges and legal remedies that courts can impose.

Democrats agree the permitting process has become unwieldy, but say the House bill undercuts public input and participation while overly restricting judicial review.

Efforts to approve permitting changes were set back last month after the administration suspended five major offshore wind projects on the East Coast because of unspecified national security concerns.

Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said the administration’s “reckless and vindictive assault on wind energy” destroyed the trust needed to enact a bipartisan overhaul of the law.