The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to speed permitting for major infrastructure projects like oil pipelines, road expansions and bridges. It is one of the biggest deregulatory actions of the president’s tenure and comes at the cost of greatly narrowing the use of one of the country’s landmark environmental laws, especially assessments of how developments could exacerbate the climate crisis.
Donald Trump is proposing changes that could allow projects ranging from oil pipelines to mines to move forward with far less federal review of their impact on the environment. “For the first time in over 40 years today we are issuing a new rule under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to completely overhaul the dysfunctional bureaucratic system that has created these massive obstructions,” Trump said at the White House on Thursday.
The proposed rule says federal agencies would not need to factor in the “cumulative impacts” of a project, which could include its impact on climate change, making it easier for major fossil fuel projects to sail through the approval process and avoid legal challenges.
Article submitted by, Great Gazoo.