House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) introduced the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act last month, legislation that in Westerman’s words would “launch America into a future where we can effectively innovate and implement to revitalize our infrastructure, meet skyrocketing energy demands, lead the world in the [artificial intelligence] race and work in harmony with our natural environment.”
As Golden stresses in his statement on the bill, and the Supreme Court reinforced in its recent decision on the law, NEPA is a “procedural statute.” Unlike the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, NEPA doesn’t actually make the environment better in any measurable way. It doesn’t remove bacteria from our water or particulates from the air. All it does is create a series of hoops federal agencies must jump through whenever anything they do touches the environment.
If the Interior Department wants to issue a grazing permit for a rancher, it must comply with NEPA. If the Forest Service wants to do a controlled burn to prevent forest fires, it must comply with NEPA. If the Energy Department provides a loan guarantee for a power line, it must comply with NEPA.
In theory, the hoops NEPA requires federal agencies to jump through sound fine. It requires agencies to study how their actions affect the environment. These studies are called Environmental Impact Statements. Federal agencies studying the environmental effects of their actions sounds good. But NEPA goes further than that by empowering entities to sue in federal court if the scope of a review is too large, or too small, or if all the Ts weren’t crossed and all the Is weren’t dotted.
This citizen suit provision has become a boon to environmental activists and their nonprofit organizations that raise money by bragging to donors about all the infrastructure projects they have prevented. While these litigants lose more than 80% of the time, their suits cost money to defend, cause years of delay, and often end with a project’s cancellation, even though the project caused no underlying environmental harm.
The SPEED Act tackles this problem in a number of ways. First, it untriggers NEPA if the agency action is only financial. Loan guarantees or program grants no longer need to comply with NEPA. It also limits who can sue under NEPA to those who both participated in the public comment process, made a specific substantive claim, and can show direct harm to them from the agency action. This is a huge limitation compared to the old regime.
Most importantly, however, the SPEED Act allows projects to continue while the agency addresses NEPA noncompliance. No more project delays! Even if a plaintiff shows that an agency abused its discretion in the NEPA process, a project can continue while the agency rectifies the error.
THE END OF THE HOMELESS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
The SPEED Act would be a huge boost to the entire economy. Roads will be built faster and cheaper, as will factories, power plants, transmission lines, homes, apartments, ski resorts, shopping centers, and much more. Name anything that needs to be built, and thanks to SPEED, it will be built cheaper and faster.
Some in the Democratic Party are now styling themselves as part of an Abundance Movement. The SPEED Act is a test for these Democrats. Do they support real permitting reform to make America a country that builds again? Or will they side with environmental groups and push our country further down the path of decline and mediocrity? Hopefully, for the sake of young Americans hoping to start a family, Democrats choose growth, dynamism, and bipartisanship.
