Opinion: Issues Highlighted by Joe Manchin Matter to America’s Future

Welcome to America’s dreaded process for issuing building permits, made famous by former President Barack Obama lament His administration struggled to spend its stimulus budget during the Great Recession, so “there’s no such thing as a shovel-ready project.”
The most cumbersome step for any major initiative comes in the form of an environmental impact statement. This requires preparation of an environmental impact statement each time a federal agency takes action or approves a project that has a significant environmental impact. National Environmental Policy Act 1969It will take years to perfect and execute these statements hundreds or thousands of pagesAs soon as it is completed, it becomes the subject of lawsuits from parties trying to slow down the project, claiming that the issue was overlooked.
The resulting delay will hurt America trillions of dollarsaccording to Common Good, a bipartisan research organization with a bipartisan advisory board. Old infrastructure will not be renewed, new and clean energy sources will not be developed, resulting in environmental quality being compromised and improved. It will not be.
Consider this: years latethe Federal Marine Energy Management Agency has finally released its four volumes, 2,400 pages. review Last year, it claimed ownership of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm and was soon sued by a solar developer. claim a wide range of shortcomings in the document. Residents of Nantucket, a small island near the proposed project, also suedThe same is true for fisheries, deep concern Wind turbines interfere with aerial surveillance of North Atlantic right whale populations, potentially leading to the death of the whales caught.
As a condition of his support for the climate bill, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said:side deal“He said he would take up his party as well. drastic permit reform Among other things, it aims to prioritize the approval of certain energy-related projects (including those in West Virginia), fix timelines for the review process, and reduce litigation time.
Party members have traditionally resisted such reform efforts, despite the enormous costs of stalled development and the obstacles it poses to the Democrats’ own stated priorities.Conversely, the Biden administration worked to restore Reforms implemented by the Trump administration limited the scope of reviews to the direct and foreseeable effects of projects. And with the climate vote first, Manchin no longer has the power to rally support on the issue.
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Why isn’t allowing reform a bipartisan priority? All countries that take the environment seriously, such as Germany, Canada and Australia, Efficient and streamlined permitting process Reach final decisions quickly and enable projects to move forward.
again, National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA provide no real protection. Laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act make various activities that can harm the environment illegal. But all NEPA does is create red tape, incentives for bureaucrats to act as slowly as possible, and endless opportunities for litigation over whether the process was fully followed. Remember, NEPA complaints are not about whether someone is harming the environment. It’s about whether someone wrote a good enough report on the environment.

The passion to keep NEPA alive comes from environmentalists and lawyers. NEPA hopes to stop projects that have no legal basis to stop. This becomes apparent when they start listing the many horribly tainted projects they fear will move forward without adequate NEPA review. But of course, laws already exist to ban projects that pose unacceptable environmental risks. You can stop without NEPA review. And if activists want to keep more projects off-limits, they can lobby to make those laws tougher. Instead, they look to NEPA to enable them to achieve through bureaucracy what they could never achieve through democratic processes.

Allied with these activists are homeowners who want access to every tool possible to stop development that could erode property values.They are easily spotted at local hearings and profess sudden worry for some salamander species It is at risk due to upcoming affordable housing developments nearby. We support affordable housing without sacrificing salamanders.
Laws like NEPA and many state-level equivalents weaponize such baseless petitions into a viable threat of legal action.in one Recent notable eventsBerkeley, Calif. resident suing under state law environmental lawsucceeded in temporarily halting enrollment expansion at the city’s public colleges when a judge concluded that additional students “could result in an adverse change or alteration of the physical environment.” Did.

On the one hand, this kind of problem scares politicians. Politicians may prefer to build more projects faster, but face greater pressure from the vocal stalwarts than from the majority of voters who are unwilling to take it to the federal government. I feel On the one hand, such issues would be of great significance if leaders could show people the link between the tedious details of policy and the very real ways it affects their lives. It provides an opportunity to take action that wins public support. Departure factories and housing shortages. Most voters support getting things done.

Importantly, beyond technical fixes such as “interagency coordination” and “estimated time limits” that might improve the process a little bit, instead recognize the problem as one of the major diseases afflicting America. is to

Now is the time to eliminate NEPA completely. People must obey laws that protect the environment. It’s not a law that requires you to write a book report on the environment. Create a right to build so that citizens can seek quick remedies in court if a project becomes embroiled in bureaucracy. If the activist loses the lawsuit, we will have them pay not only the full cost of the lawsuit, but also the costs of delaying the project.

Former President Bill Clinton declared, “There is nothing wrong in America that cannot be cured by what is right for America.” first inaugural addressAlso, he may have added, the United States does not have a problem that warrants amending yet another environmental impact statement. there are a lot of.

Source: www.cnn.com

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