Trump orders use of emergency streamlining for energy projects
President Trump issued an executive order June 4 invoking emergency authority to expedite government decisions on infrastructure investment and other activities, notably energy projects.
The order tells federal permitting agencies to use the flexible emergency options available to them for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act.
In his executive order, Trump explained, “The need for continued progress in this streamlining effort is all the more acute now, due to the ongoing economic crisis. Unnecessary regulatory delays will deny our citizens opportunities for jobs and economic security, keeping millions of Americans out of work and hindering our economic recovery from the national emergency.”
In March Trump declared a national emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic, his declaration issued under authority of the National Emergencies Act of 1976 and the Stafford Act of 1988. That declaration prepared the way for the executive order.
‘Alternative arrangements’
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which oversees NEPA regulations, has at times “appropriately approved alternative arrangements in a wide variety of pressing emergency situations” for NEPA compliance, the order said.
The order tells agencies to use emergency procedures for consultations when a project may have an impact on endangered species.
The order also tells the US Army Corps of Engineers to use emergency provisions for its application of nationwide permits. Such permits notably are used for oil and natural gas pipelines and have become the focus of an ongoing court fight stemming from the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline.
The order does not provide detailed examples of how the emergency permitting procedures will differ from standard practice, and spokesmen for the Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department did not have examples available when contacted.
Negative and positive responses
Some critics reacted with warnings that emergency permitting could prove harmful. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) connected it to climate change.
Pelosi issued a statement saying the executive order “waiving critical environmental protections is a direct threat to the environment and to countless vulnerable communities who are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis.”
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, questioned Trump’s motives by saying, “President Trump is using the pretense of a deadly pandemic and its ensuing economic calamity” for “the erasure of long-standing protections for the environment and public health.”
Robin Rorick, vice president of midstream and industry operations at the trade association American Petroleum Institute, welcomed the executive order with a statement saying, “We are in an unprecedented time, and getting infrastructure projects approved and moving will go a long way in restarting our economy.”
