New Guidelines for NEPA

New Guidelines for NEPA

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
New Guidelines for NEPA

President Trump announced plans for overhauling rules surrounding the nation's environmental law.

The president said he wanted to fix the nation's "regulatory nightmare" through new guidelines for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

Tanner Beymer is with the Public Lands Council and explains.

The president, during remarks at the White House with supporters and Cabinet officials, said he wanted to fix the nation's "regulatory nightmare" through new guidelines for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act.

"America is a nation of builders," he said. But it takes too long to get a permit, and that's "big government at its absolute worst."

The president said, "We're maintaining America's world-class standards of environmental protection." He added, "We're going to have very strong regulation, but it's going to go very quickly."

NEPA says the federal government must consider alternatives to major projects like oil pipelines, highways and bridges that could inflict environmental harm. The law also gives communities input.

The Council on Environmental Quality has not updated the implementing rules in decades, and both energy companies and environmentalists want them reworked. But they patently disagree on how to change the rules.

A central fight surrounds whether the government considers climate change concerns when analyzing a project.

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