U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and U.S. House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) led 130 of their GOP colleagues in supporting a proposed rulemaking by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to modernize the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
“This rulemaking represents the first comprehensive overhaul since the NEPA regulations were originally promulgated more than 40 years ago,” wrote the members in a March 4 letter sent to CEQ Chairman Mary Neumayr. “These critical reforms will bring needed clarity to our nation’s environmental laws, preserve the competitive edge that powers our economy, and foster continued stewardship of our environment and natural resources.”
The CEQ in January issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modernize and clarify NEPA regulations via proposed amendments that would reduce paperwork and delays associated with the NEPA policies.
Reps. Scalise, Newhouse, and their colleagues pointed out that in their districts, they “constantly hear about the opportunities lost when projects are stalled by NEPA’s increasingly time-consuming and unnecessary red tape.”
“As we travel throughout our communities, we experience these failures as we encounter crumbling roads and closed-off bridges that may wait years for repair,” wrote the congressmen, who serve on the joint House Energy Action Team and Congressional Western Caucus. “We all want better roads, stronger bridges, and improved infrastructure, but without NEPA reform that reality is years away.”
The lawmakers added that “unending litigation and mountains of paperwork define a permitting process that stretches along an indefinite timeline,” while delays also slow innovation and plague development of emerging technologies for off-shore and land-based wind energy projects, for example, or updates to the nation’s “aging electric grid.”
“The inability to move projects forward also places U.S. national security at risk because our country has become entirely dependent on other countries,” they wrote.
Additionally, permitting delays hinder efforts to protect the environment. Speeding up the permitting process “would allow coastal restoration and flood protection projects to be finished in a timely fashion,” wrote the lawmakers.
“These long-overdue reforms are necessary to maintain our nation’s competitive edge while preserving our long history of environmental leadership,” wrote the members. “We encourage CEQ to finalize the rulemaking process under its current timeline and return the implementation of NEPA to its core procedural and informational purposes.”