NEPA Update Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. Good news for those who dread the delays federal bureaucracies throw in the path of rural projects for years longer than it seems should be necessary.
Last week, the Trump Administration issued an update to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, that should speed up the environmental review process significantly …
DAVIS … “And, it’s one of the many environmental laws that was enacted during the Nixon Administration and it went into rural development. Those passed in 1978 and there’ve been no significant changes made since then.”
The Washington Farm Bureau’s Director of Government Affairs,
Tom Davis says it’s a change they’ve endorsed for many years …
DAVIS … “The State Farm Bureau, the American Farm Bureau Federation has been pushing for these changes for years, and what this rule, we believe, is going to do and what the Trump Administration is also touting is it’s going to improve the interagency coordination when it comes to the environmental review process. It’s going to promote earlier public involvement in the projects and by doing that it’s going to increase transparency and what the project is, what they believe the outcome of that, and it will also enhance the participation from both the state level, tribal level, and local government.”
But, Davis says to be clear, it does not mean environmental reviews won’t happen, they will. It just reduces the time it typically takes.
Listen tomorrow for more on the update to NEPA and what these changes should mean from a time perspective.
