President-elect Trump on Tuesday signaled his intention to quickly approve projects that would invest at least $1 billion in the U.S. economy.
President Trump: “Any individual or company investing $1 billion or more in the United States will receive full expedited approvals and permits, including but not limited to all environmental approvals.'' I wrote it in the post In true social.
“Get ready to rock!!!” he added.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), one of the nation's cornerstone environmental laws, requires environmental reviews before taking actions such as approving energy production or approving infrastructure projects such as pipelines and highways. requires federal agencies to do so.
Many companies and business lobby groups have long complained about the length of such reviews, arguing that delays can be lengthy and costly.
William Buzbee, a law professor at Georgetown University, told The Hill in an email that the president can ask government agencies to “act with agility on certain high-priority actions.”
However, he said these requests “at best result in high-priority actions, and agencies still need to follow NEPA orders and processes.”
He said the law does not provide a “statutory fast track for large-scale investments in large-scale projects.”
“In fact, the greater the impact, the more carefully authorities must investigate if they are to survive subsequent judicial review,” he wrote.
Trump's post came on the same day the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether to limit the scope of NEPA to exclude certain indirect environmental impacts. It's unclear whether the lawsuit is related.
Meanwhile, environmentalists objected to President Trump's plan.
“Corporate polluters cannot be bribed to put our communities and clean air and water at risk,” Mahyal Solor, director of non-fossil fuel policy at the Sierra Club, said in a statement.
“We will continue to fight to protect bedrock environmental protections and ensure they apply to everyone, not just those who can't pay President Trump's bribes,” Solor added.
Updated at 4:04 PM ET.
