On June 4, 2020,
President Trump issued
an Executive Order
intended to expedite
the federal approval
process for major
infrastructure projects.
He used the emergency
authority built into the
National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) and
other relevant laws.
“Economic Recovery
from the COVID-19
Emergency
by Expediting
Infrastructure
Investments
and Other Activities”
seeks to put people
back to work
by getting
transportation,
energy, and other big
construction projects
underway as quickly
as possible.
This effort follows
a May 19, 2020
Executive Order
on regulatory relief:
-- That Executive Order
asked each federal agency,
for regulations to revise
or repeal to reinvigorate
the economy.
The latest Executive Order
calls on agency heads to find
major projects currently
under consideration
—a process that takes
4.5 years on average—
that can be approved
immediately, based on
the analysis and review
already conducted.
All approved projects,
once up and running,
will still have to comply
with the substantive
requirements of the
Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act,
and other applicable
environmental statutes.
The only change
is these projects
won’t have to wait
several more years
to get approved.
The administration
will have to
demonstrate to a
federal court that the
statutory emergency
provisions were
properly applied
to the project at issue.
Win or lose,
litigation will slow down
this ambitious effort
to roll back federal
red tape, in an effort
to strengthen the
American economy.