The nation’s bedrock environmental law is getting a makeover. President Joe Biden today announced a final rule to revamp the administration’s implementation of the 54-year-old National Environmental Policy Act in an effort to speed up permitting for key clean energy projects. The rule is critical for achieving Biden’s green agenda as he mounts his 2024 reelection bid, writes Kevin Bogardus. But it’s already facing pushback from Republican lawmakers and Democratic foe Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The rule sets deadlines and page limits for the environmental reviews that agencies conduct for all projects seeking permits. It requires one agency to lead the review of any particular permit, rather than giving veto power to multiple agencies. The changes will apply to permits for both clean energy projects — including solar storage and electric vehicle charging — and those involving fossil fuels. But some clean energy projects may be eligible for even more accelerated reviews. But administration officials emphasized that the rule maintains environmental protections. Agencies will still conduct NEPA reviews but with “fewer pages in faster time,“ one official told reporters. The rule also requires agencies to consider a project’s implications for climate change and impacts on disadvantaged communities. Many of the rule’s provisions stem from the debt ceiling deal Biden negotiated with GOP congressional leaders last year. But Manchin argues that the rule doesn’t adhere closely enough to that deal, accusing the administration of “corrupting it with their own radical agenda.” He vowed to roll it back through a Congressional Review Act resolution (which Biden would almost certainly veto). Manchin and other lawmakers have been working on their own legislative compromise to speed up the permitting of the clean energy projects that Democrats favor and the pipelines and gas export terminals backed by Republicans. “At a time when everyone agrees that it takes too long to build infrastructure in this country, the Administration’s new NEPA regulations will take us backwards,” Manchin said in a statement. Republican state attorneys general have also criticized the measure, saying in comments filed last year that it constitutes “a dramatic example of federal and administrative overreach.” But environmentalists and Democrats say the rule could go a long way in safeguarding vulnerable communities while boosting clean energy projects that help curb climate change. "We do not have to sacrifice environmental justice, community safeguards, public health or environmental protections to fight climate change and build the clean energy economy we need,” said Christy Goldfuss with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The rules’ durability will likely also depend on whether Biden wins his reelection campaign. Former President Donald Trump, who previously restricted environmental reviews, could initiate a process to repeal Biden’s regulation.
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