Latest news with #environmentalReview
Wall Street Journal
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
NEPA Is the Building Barrier
Regarding your editorial 'The High Court Gives Permission to Build' (May 30): While the unanimous ruling seems like a big victory, it will mean little in practice because the National Environmental Policy Act is fundamentally flawed. To its credit, the court makes clear that four years of litigation and a 3,600-page environmental review are too much for an 88-mile railway. But what about a 3,599-page review and three years and 11 months of litigation? That's what antidevelopment activists will demand and activist judges will still allow. Even if we end up with 1,000-page reviews and a year of litigation—a dramatic yet unlikely improvement—the infrastructure America needs will still be stymied, delayed or defeated by red tape. The problem is NEPA, which needs wholesale reform or outright repeal, something only Congress can do. Until that happens, this won't be the last such case the courts hear, because there's still no real permission to build. Christopher Koopman CEO, Abundance Institute Salt Lake City
E&E News
29-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Supreme Court sets tighter limits on NEPA reviews
The Supreme Court on Thursday placed new limits on environmental reviews for major federal projects such as pipelines and railways. In a unanimous 8-0 ruling, the justices found that a lower court should more narrowly tailor National Environmental Policy Act analyses to focus on effects that are close to projects under review and fall directly under the purview of approving agencies. 'Simply stated, NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock. The goal of the law is to inform agency decisionmaking, not to paralyze it,' said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing the opinion for the court, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. Advertisement Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a separate concurrence with the court's judgment, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Neil Gorsuch recused himself from considering the case. The decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County is expected to have significant implications for how courts handle lawsuits over NEPA reviews, as the Trump administration has vowed to boost fossil fuel development and streamline project permitting. The ruling is a win for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, an independent arm of the Utah state government, which claimed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had overstepped when it required more NEPA analysis for the 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway. The project is designed to carry crude oil out of the Uinta Basin and connect it to the national railway network, where it would travel to Gulf Coast refineries. The D.C. Circuit ruled in 2023 that the Surface Transportation Board had to go back to work to consider how construction of the rail line could lead to more environmental harm from increased oil drilling and refining. Officials from Eagle County, Colorado, and environmental groups opposed to the Utah rail line had lauded the D.C. Circuit ruling as aligning with NEPA's requirements to consider reasonably foreseeable impacts of new projects.
E&E News
28-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Trump axes Biden-era climate guidance in NEPA reviews
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will further truncate environmental reviews by eliminating Biden-era guidance to consider greenhouse gas emissions and climate change when weighing new energy projects. The White House's Council on Environmental Quality issued a notice in the Federal Register that it would end interim guidance first issued in 2023, which had directed agencies to consider environmental justice and climate policies in National Environmental Policy Act reviews. The move marks the latest step in President Donald Trump's push to dramatically speed up the environmental review process and approval of energy projects. Advertisement The Interior Department in April outlined a NEPA process that would allow some reviews to be completed in 14 to 28 days, a vast reduction from a process that typically takes up to two years. Last week it completed a NEPA review for an underground uranium mine in Utah in just 11 days.
