Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) led a letter to Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Brenda Mallory, raising concerns about CEQ's reversal of the Trump administration’s reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In part, the members wrote:
"The Phase One regulations prompt questions about the Biden administration’s intentions towards domestic energy development and resource production. In a December 10, 2021, letter, Committee on Natural Resources Republicans raised significant concerns about the negative impact of undoing the 2020 NEPA reforms. CEQ’s Phase One regulations are anticipated to hamper domestic energy projects, including both fossil fuel and renewable energy projects. Last month, the Biden administration announced that it would finally comply with a court order requiring oil and gas sales on public lands. Unfortunately, the announced lease sale cut the acres offered for lease by 80 percent and significantly increased royalty rates from 12.5 to 18.75 percent. This lackluster announcement was followed by the implementation of the Phase One NEPA regulations and the cancelation of remaining offshore lease sales. Ultimately, these changes will make it more difficult to build the infrastructure needed to increase domestic energy production – including renewable infrastructure. As American families face rising gas prices and global insecurity threatens energy supply chains, the Biden administration continues to place obstacles in the way of American energy independence.
"As CEQ considers Phase Two of its NEPA reforms, significant concerns arise about the impact more burdensome NEPA requirements will have on crucial infrastructure projects. Environmental groups are calling on CEQ to implement 'aggressive' changes in Phase Two, leading to more layers of bureaucratic red tape in an already prolonged project approval process. CEQ’s continued efforts to dismantle the advances of the 2020 NEPA reforms eliminates the progress made in streamlining the permitting process. Therefore, we urge CEQ to reverse course, leaving the 2020 NEPA reforms intact."
Signed into law Jan.1, 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) established broad sweeping review processes for determining the environmental impacts of many federal actions and created the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in the Executive Office of the President. The original goal of this law was to ensure that each federal agency considers how their decisions will impact the environment. Today, however, the regulatory overreach and bureaucratic process under NEPA far outweighs its general concern for the well-being of our environment. It can add years to project review times, excessive paperwork and administrative costs without benefiting the environment and has become another tool for excessive litigation and to block or impede literally any economic or energy-related activity that may have a federal nexus.
Under the Trump administration, commonsense updates to NEPA helped streamline the federal government’s decision making process. President Joe Biden’s decision to reverse reforms to NEPA will subject the American people to delayed projects, increased energy and infrastructure prices and cost American jobs.In December2021, Republican members of the House Committee on Natural Resources sent a letter to Mallory expressing strong opposition to this action. Read the full letter here.
