Biden is restoring climate to landmark environmental law
WASHINGTON » The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is restoring parts of a bedrock environmental law, once again requiring that climate impacts be considered and local communities have input before federal agencies approve highways, pipelines and other major projects.
The administration has resurrected requirements of the 50year-old National Environmental Policy Act that had been removed by President Donald Trump, who complained that they slowed down the development of mines, road expansions and similar projects.
The final rule announced Tuesday would require federal agencies to conduct an analysis of the greenhouse gases that could be emitted over the lifetime of a proposed project, as well as how climate change might affect new highways, bridges and other infrastructure, according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The rule, which takes effect in 30 days, would also ensure agencies give communities directly affected by projects a greater role in the approval process.
Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the council, described the regulation as restoring “basic community safeguards” that the Trump administration had eliminated.
“Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help projects get built faster, be more resilient and provide greater benefits to people who live nearby,” she said in a statement.
The move comes as President Joe Biden’s climate agenda faces headwinds from Congress and the courts. The president also is under pressure to boost oil production as a way to temper high gas prices across the United States.
Last week, the Interior Department said it would begin offering oil and gas drilling leases on public lands and waters, despite Biden’s campaign promise that he would end new leases. Senior administration officials this week maintained the leasing decision was necessary because of a court ruling and said that it had also raised federal royalties that companies must pay to drill.
On Friday, which is Earth Day, Biden will be in Seattle, where aides said he is expected to give a speech highlighting efforts to expand solar energy and offshore wind farms as well as clean energy initiatives that Congress authorized last year as part of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
Administration officials said the new rule would not have major immediate effects since the Biden administration had already been weighing the climate change impacts of proposed projects. But it would force future administrations to abide by the process or undertake a lengthy regulatory process and possibly legal challenges to again undo it.
The National Environmental Policy Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, after several environmental disasters, including a crude oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., and a series of fires on the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio, that shocked the nation.