White House Adds Burdensome Requirements on Infrastructure and Energy Permitting

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) rolled out additional National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) permitting requirements. This rule will impose hurdles to the permitting and environmental review process for infrastructure and energy projects. U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, released the following statement after the announcement of the final rule:

“The irony of President Biden touting efficiency while simultaneously saddling energy and infrastructure projects with more permitting requirements is rich. The so-called simplification of these requirements is reserved for the projects the Biden administration and its radical environmentalist bureaucrats favor. Instead of implementing the permitting reforms agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, this final rule adds to the red tape project proponents are already struggling to navigate. Liberals have realized a transmission line or offshore wind platform is just as hard to permit as a pipeline, mine, or highway. Rather than making it easier for all these projects, they have chosen to pick winners and losers. This backwards decision needs to go.”

Senator Cramer previously joined EPW Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and fellow EPW Republicans in sending a letter to CEQ expressing opposition to these proposed rules. The letter also urged the Biden administration to stick to the bipartisan permitting reforms agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.