Quite bluntly we presently have a culture of legalistic obstructionism pursued by so called activists all funded by vested interests oposing change for selfish reasons.
The best example of that was the fight over the new bridge now being built between Windsor and Detroit. It will be completed in 2024 or a good twenty years after first proposed.
The fact is that most of the big bridges within the USA are old and typically need a capacity change at the least. Thus this core step is the beginning of a massive infrastructure rebuild that is long overdue.
The USA will be great again in the best way possible...
President
Donald Trump speaks during a 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event
held at the King Jesus International Ministry on January 03, 2020 in
Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Trump Unveils Plan to Speed Up Permits for Big Projects
January 9, 2020
President Donald Trump on Jan. 9 introduced a plan to expedite the permitting process for major infrastructure projects such as oil pipelines and bridges.
Once adopted, the proposed rule would mark the first modification in
four decades on how the executive branch interprets the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Enacted in 1970, NEPA is a bedrock
environmental regulation that requires the federal government to assess
the impact of major projects on the environment.
The
plan, prepared by the White House Council on Environmental Quality,
would help the Trump administration push through large energy products
that have been tied up over concerns about their effect on the climate.
The
move is part of Trump’s broader effort to cut regulatory red tape to
boost industry. The president frequently cites deregulation and tax cuts
as the major drivers behind the surging U.S. economy.
“Today we
are taking another historic step to slash job-killing regulations and
improve the quality of life for all of our citizens,” Trump said at the
White House on Jan. 9.
“In the past, many of America’s most
critical infrastructure projects have been tied up and bogged down by an
outrageously slow and burdensome federal approval process—and I’ve been
talking about it for a long time—where it takes many years to get
something built.”
The
proposed rule would limit the time for the completion of environmental
impact statements to two years and to one year for the completion of
environmental assessments. The proposed rule would also limit the length
of the assessment reports, which often total more than 600 pages.
Executive branch agencies would also be allowed to adopt another
agency’s determination to avoid duplicate effort and increase
efficiency.
Environmental impact statements currently take nearly
five years to complete, on average, according to the White House. The
average for highways is seven years. Approvals for roads, bridges,
airports, and railways have “been significantly hindered under existing
regulations,” according to a statement from the White House.
The
rule states that federal agencies wouldn’t need to factor in the climate
impact of a project, making it easier for major fossil fuel projects to
sail through the approval process and avoid legal challenges.
Assessing
a major project’s impact on climate change isn’t mandated by NEPA, but
over the last few years, federal courts have ruled that the law requires
the federal government to consider a project’s carbon footprint in
decisions related to leasing public lands for drilling or building
pipelines.
The proposed change also would widen the categories of
projects that can be excluded from NEPA altogether. If a type of project
got a “categorical exclusion” from one agency in the past, for example,
it would automatically be excluded from review by other agencies,
according to the plan.
Trump, a commercial real estate developer
before becoming president, frequently complained that the NEPA
permitting process took too long.
In
remarks announcing the new rule, Trump noted that it currently takes 10
years to get a permit to build “a simple road.” The president pointed
to the 25-year delay in the construction of a bridge in North Carolina,
the 15-year delay for improvements to a vital highway in Alaska, and the
two-decade environmental review for the runway at the Seattle-Tacoma
international airport.
“It’s big government at its absolute worst,” Trump said.
Some
of the country’s biggest industry groups, including the Chamber of
Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, also have complained
about lengthy permitting delays.
“We are fully supportive of the
president’s initiative when it comes to NEPA and permitting reform,”
Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, said
at the White House. “This proposal does nothing to take away from the
protections for our citizens, for our taxpayers, for our workers, or for
our environment.”
Jennifer Houston, president of the National
Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said that cattlemen are subject to NEPA
reviews on a regular basis for grazing permits, improving their
rangeland, or applying for federal programs.
“Although
well-intentioned, it has become mired in a complex web of litigation and
complexity and delay. These reforms are very exciting. They will
streamline the process, reduce duplication, allow more local control,
and let our cattlemen and our beef producers go back to go back to what
they do the best,” Houston said at the White House.
Environmental
groups warned the plan will remove a powerful tool to protect local
communities from the adverse impacts of a hastily designed and reviewed
project.
“Today’s destructive actions by Trump, if not blocked by
the courts or immediately reversed by the next president, will have
reverberations for decades to come,” said Rebecca Concepcion Apostol,
U.S. program director at Oil Change International, an environmental
group.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue
said at an event on Jan. 9 that the president’s new action is not all
about the environment.
“Some of the changes that were provided in
the recent actions by the president were so common sense, which just had
to be done. And people are trying to make it all about the environment.
It is not all about the environment. It is all about regulatory
overburden, it is all about confusion, one regulation against the
other,” Donohue said. “This was a good thing to do.”
The plan will go through a public comment period before being finalized.
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