ARTBA: Proposed NEPA reform rollback conflicts with Biden administration infrastructure goals

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The proposed elimination of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reforms by the Biden administration clash with the administration’s support for transportation infrastructure investment, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association said Tuesday.

During testimony at a Council on Environmental Quality hearing, the organization said rollbacks of NEPA reforms were “ill-timed” and inconsistent with the administration’s goal of modernization.

“The House of Representatives is now considering the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) – championed by the Biden administration and members of both parties in Congress – which would provide record federal investment for the nation’s transportation network while modernizing NEPA,” ARTBA Vice President of Regulatory & Legal Issues Nick Goldstein said. “CEQ and all other federal agencies should be focused on maximizing the economic benefits from new transportation projects once the IIJA becomes law. Returning NEPA policy to the decades-long status quo of perpetual delays and red tape is ill-timed and wholly inconsistent with the administration’s own stated goals of modernizing the nation’s transportation infrastructure.”

NEPA controls the environmental review process at the federal level for transportation projects. Last updated in 1986, the act is part of protecting the environment, ARTBA said, but has imposed unnecessary regulatory delays that have no environmental benefit and increased the time needed to approve projects for years.

Currently, ARTBA said, the environmental review process can take as long as seven years for new transportation projects. The IIJA would set a goal for completing a review within two years. CEQ’s proposal would roll back changes to NEPA designed to reduce unnecessary delays while maintaining environmental safeguards, Goldstein said.