Opinion | Gutting the National Environmental Policy Act is a Political Vendetta, Not Permitting Reform

Press Release

"At the end of March, House Republicans passed H.R. 1, a shameless giveaway of handouts and loopholes to the oil, gas, and mining industries, fittingly dubbed the Polluters Over People Act. While oil companies' record-breaking profits make it clear that they're not an industry under duress, Republicans continue to push legislation to gut our most fundamental environmental and public health laws, namely the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), to line industry pockets.

But of course, if you listen to industry-branded talking points you won't hear that side of the story. You'll hear relatively innocuous-sounding words, like "streamlining," "modernizing," or the latest turn of phrase -- "permitting reform."

To be clear, permitting reform is not inherently a dirty concept. After all, the climate crisis is calling on us to get clean energy infrastructure up and running quickly -- and there is broad consensus across the political spectrum that we must improve existing permitting processes to make that happen.

But, the way Republicans are using permitting reform as a foil to wage a full-scale political attack on NEPA and other bedrock environmental laws most certainly is dirty. As ranking member and Subcommittee ranking member of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over NEPA, we know this strategy all too well and have watched it play out for years.

As the GOP seizes every possible opportunity to wage war on NEPA, these attacks ignore the fact that it was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress because it gave the American people a seat at the table in federal decision-making. These attacks ignore the fact that good-government process put into place by NEPA are often communities' only line of defense against pollution and other harms. And, these attacks ignore how critical NEPA is for environmental justice communities, which have long been excluded from decisions and treated as collateral damage by irresponsible polluters.

But perhaps most curiously, Republican attacks ignore the fact that slicing and dicing NEPA won't speed up permitting processes.

That's because a whopping 95 percent of all projects are already exempt from detailed reviews under NEPA. Of the less than 1 percent of projects that go through NEPA's full Environmental Impact Statement process, these are the largest and most complex -- making their environmental and public health impacts deserving of closer scrutiny and public input.

When there are project delays, they are often caused by the permit applicants themselves who may fail to provide the right application materials or pause a project due to financing and market conditions.

Putting applicant issues aside, NEPA itself is not the primary source of delays, but rather underfunded agencies that lack the resources and staffing needed to carry out reviews. That's why, last year, House Democrats passed more than $1 billion in the historic Inflation Reduction Act to help federal agencies staff up permitting offices. That funding is expected to shrink review timelines by years -- a goal that Republicans claim to aspire to, yet unanimously voted against. Republicans' own expert witness acknowledged these factors, calling this funding "wonderful," in a committee hearing this year.

So, if Republicans are so concerned about permitting reform, why haven't they championed full funding for environmental review offices? Why are they instead passing draconian budget cuts that would actually make permitting issues worse?

To put it simply, Republicans appear to be more interested in advancing a pro-polluter political agenda than putting real and meaningful permitting solutions in place. They know that if they weaken longstanding environmental protections and hollow out federal agencies, polluters can pursue projects with as little accountability (and as much profit) as possible.

Like all of our Democratic colleagues, we are eager to get clean energy infrastructure up and running quickly -- as long as it's done equitably and protects our communities and the environment in the process. We stand ready to come to the table to talk about real permitting solutions, like fully funding environmental review offices and improving clean energy transmission planning and resilience.

But when it comes to taking the knife to NEPA and other bedrock environmental laws, we will continue to hold the line. On behalf of the millions of Americans who are already overburdened by polluting industries' messes, and the millions more who have entrusted us to fight for policy solutions that actually work, we have no intention of supporting this industry-driven effort.

Permitting reform may indeed be necessary for our clean energy future, but let's not let a worn-out political vendetta against NEPA goad us into believing it's a necessary evil. "

Source