President Donald Trump has announced the anticipated overhaul of the 50-year old National Environmental Protection Act, which will ease regulations and accelerate major infrastructure projects.
The rollbacks will shorten historically long permit processes and reduce the types and number of projects that will be subject to review under the NEPA, taking the brakes off federal infrastructure projects such as pipelines, highways and power plants.
According to a statement from the United States Energy Association (USEA), NEPA has not had a major revision in 40 years and has “morphed into redundant compliance requirements and an unreasonably laborious review process that has delayed each infrastructure project, from roads to bridges to pipelines, by seven years on average.”
Barry Worthington, USEA executive director, noted: “Under the old NEPA rule, the energy in