Industry, Environmental Groups Debate Trump Plan to Exempt Major Infrastructure from NEPA Oversight

摘要

Verbal skirmishing over proposed changes to the Nixon-era National Environ- mental Policy Act (NEPA) continued even as the White House’s Council on Environ- mental Quality (CEQ) prepared for its fnal scheduled hearing on the nation’s bench- mark environmental protection law. Last month the administration unveiled an overhaul that would strip constraints on constructing natural gas and oil pipelines, power plants and other major infrastructure projects from NEPA, which touches almost every signifcant infrastructure project in the country. NEPA requires thorough impact assessments of major projects and allows the public to weigh in before a shovel is allowed to break ground.