Trump is bypassing community input to fast-track energy projects that risk pollution
This story is part of a Grist package examining how President Trump's first 100 days in office have reshaped climate and environmental policy in the U.S., and is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan.
When President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office, he directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use emergency permitting for projects to boost energy supplies, including oil, natural gas, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, hydropower, and critical minerals.
Doing so effectively created a new class of emergency permit to fast track energy projects across the country. But environmental advocates worry this will harm the ability of the public to weigh in on projects that will contribute to climate change and harm sensitive ecosystems.
Speeding up permitting for high-profile proposals will likely gain attention and trigger lawsuits, said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. But he worries that under the order, there will be less scrutiny paid to less well-known projects.
'The one thing that is clear is they're cutting back,' he said. 'They're shortening the amount of time for public comment.'
Three laws grant the Army Corps authority to permit projects that impact wetlands and waters, including assessing their environmental effects: the Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act, and the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act.
The agency typically uses emergency permitting for projects that prevent risk to human life, property, or of unexpected and significant economic hardship, such as rebuilding infrastructure after a hurricane. Creating emergency procedures to address energy supplies is new. And according to Bookbinder, it's illegal.
The corps has allowed the president to amend its regulation without going through the required process, he said, 'And the president can't do that.'
Emergency procedures will be determined by each Army Corps district, a process Bookbinder called 'rather opaque.' For instance, he said, it's not clear whether or how the corps will go through the environmental analysis required by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The landmark 1970 law requires the federal government to account for environmental impacts before permitting a project, and is sometimes the only opportunity for people to weigh in on projects that will affect them.
This is part of a much larger effort to increase energy production, including through drilling and mining; last week the Interior Department announced it would fast-track such projects on public lands. The Trump administration has also moved to unravel and decentralize how NEPA is implemented.
Doug Garman, a spokesperson with the agency headquarters, said in an email the Army Corps is still required to comply with 'all applicable laws and regulations,' including NEPA, and that 'coordination of these reviews will be subject to the emergency declared under [the executive order.]'
Garman said current regulations do allow the agency to respond to the declared emergency in this manner.
Concrete changes are already taking place. Two Clean Water Act permits for Texas projects — that the corps designated as emergencies — now have shortened comment periods lasting less than two weeks: the Texas Connector pipeline supplying Port Arthur liquefied natural gas and the Rio Grande liquefied natural gas ship channel.
The Army Corps also announced it will speed up its review of a contentious tunnel under the Great Lakes that would house a section of the Line 5 pipeline, which carries oil and natural gas liquids from Wisconsin to Ontario. The 72-year-old pipeline currently runs about four miles underwater in the straits between lakes Michigan and Huron.
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Shane McCoy, a regulatory branch chief with the corps' Detroit District, told reporters the emergency procedures 'truncated' its timeline but that they weren't 'eliminating any of the steps' in the process. The corps said the project qualifies as an emergency and that a faster review will allow it 'to address an energy supply situation' which would risk life, property, and unexpected and significant economic hardship.
The pipeline's owner, Canada-based Enbridge, first applied for a federal permit to build the tunnel in 2020. It says doing so would make the pipeline safer by reducing the risk of an oil spill and calls it 'critical energy infrastructure.'
But the permitting process had been deeply flawed even before it had been fast tracked, according to seven tribal nations in Michigan that withdrew from federal talks on the tunnel.
'The Straits of Mackinac is spiritually, culturally, and economically vital to Tribal Nations,' tribal leaders wrote in a letter to the corps, saying that the agency's environmental review process 'disregards this deep place-based connection and instead seems designed to ensure that oil — and its associated threats — will continue to exist throughout the treaty ceded territory, including in the Great Lakes and the Straits.'
The decision to speed up that review was the 'final straw,' according to Whitney Gravelle, president of the Bay Mills Indian Community.
'We will continue to defend the rights of the Great Lakes. See you in court,' she said in an emailed statement after the change was announced.
There's also the matter of the energy emergency itself. The executive order holds that the country's 'insufficient energy production, transportation, refining, and generation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation's economy, national security, and foreign policy.' But many energy experts have said that isn't accurate, adding to numerous legal questions surrounding the order.
Under former President Joe Biden, the United States produced record amounts of oil and gas, and remained the world's largest liquid natural gas exporter, though that administration cut back on leasing federal lands for drilling and slowed some gas exports.
The White House did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
'Overall, our production levels for fossil fuels were quite high,' said David Spence, a professor of energy law at the University of Texas at Austin. 'So on the oil and gas side of things, to the extent that the Trump administration wants to increase production, it's going to be incremental at best because the market will only take as much as the market wants, and we were doing a pretty good job of satisfying that demand beforehand.'
Faster permitting will likely benefit individual projects, Spence said, along with oil companies and exporters of products like liquefied natural gas.
While Trump's executive order doesn't directly mention wind or solar, it implied that such energy made the grid unreliable. It also includes critical minerals in its push for domestic extraction — minerals used in renewable technologies. Spence said the supply of critical minerals is less secure because the U.S. relies on foreign imports. 'If that's what the emergency is aimed at, then you can sort of make that case with more of a straight face.'
Still, he said in an email, 'I generally think that 'energy independence' is a silly idea. Trade happens because it benefits both parties. Getting in the way of that takes away those benefits.'
Enbridge is among IPR's financial sponsors. Financial sponsors have no influence on IPR's news coverage.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump is bypassing community input to fast-track energy projects that risk pollution on Apr 29, 2025.
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Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump authorizes additional 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles, US officials say
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They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' for them. Newsom called the deployments reckless and 'disrespectful to our troops' in a post on the social platform X. 'This isn't about public safety,' Newsom said. 'It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.' The protests began Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas. In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a spokesperson for the city's police department said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings. California pushes back against presence of federal troops California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement Monday that Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty. 'We don't take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,' Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment. 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Early protests remained peaceful On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta , who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta's arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration's crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers. Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta's release. Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension. 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Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference in the morning that their loved ones be released. The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him. 'Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,' Vasquez's brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities. Several dozen people were arrested in protests throughout the weekend. Authorities say one was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. 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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump authorizes additional 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles, US officials say
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders Monday from President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom don't want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests. An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by anger over Trump's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families. Monday's demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' for them. Newsom called the deployments reckless and 'disrespectful to our troops' in a post on the social platform X. 'This isn't about public safety,' Newsom said. 'It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.' The protests began Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas. In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a spokesperson for the city's police department said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings. California pushes back against presence of federal troops California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement Monday that Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty. 'We don't take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,' Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment. Trump said Monday that the city would have been 'completely obliterated' if he had not deployed the Guard. U.S. officials said the Marine troops were deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents. Trump's Monday order put more National Guard members on active duty, but one U.S. official warned that the order was just signed and it could take a day or two to get troops moving. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control. Bass criticized the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines as a 'deliberate attempt' by the Trump administration to 'create disorder and chaos in our city.' She made a plea to the federal government: 'Stop the raids.' 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There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks including the federal detention facility, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets. Chanting against a line of National Guard troops with Homeland Security officers behind them surrounding the federal buildings ramped up in the afternoon as people yelled, 'Free them all!' and 'National Guard go away.' As the crowd thinned, police began pushing protesters away from the area, firing crowd-control munitions as people chanted, "Peaceful protest.' Officers became more aggressive in their tactics in the evening, occasionally surging forward to arrest protesters that got too close. At least a dozen people remaining in the busy Little Tokyo neighborhood were surrounded by police and detained. Other protests took shape Monday across LA County. Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference in the morning that their loved ones be released. The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him. 'Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,' Vasquez's brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities. Several dozen people were arrested in protests throughout the weekend. Authorities say one was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. Guard deployment is a nearly unprecedented escalation The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' ___ Sullivan reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Doechii Calls Out Trump Administration for ‘Creating Fear and Chaos' at L.A. Protests in BET Awards Speech
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