Trump Administration Seeks To Defang ‘Magna Carta’ of Environmental Law That Has Hamstrung Development for Decades

 The National Environmental Policy Act was supposed to ensure humans and nature can exist in ‘productive harmony,’ but critics say it has become a tool for environmentalists to needlessly delay major projects.

President Trump is moving to defang the so-called “Magna Carta” of environmental laws in America and eliminate regulations that drag out the permitting process for federal projects for years. 

The Council on Environmental Quality submitted a little-noticed filing, dated February 16, titled “Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations.” The rule’s “stage” was listed as the “interim final rule.”

A center-right policy institute, the American Action Forum, explains that interim final rules are rules that, in effect, bypass the standard public comment period that proposed rules have to go through before they take effect. Instead, the NEPA rollback takes effect at the date of publication. Interim final rules are typically issued in emergency situations but can be issued without an emergency.

NEPA, which was signed by President Nixon in 1970, has been a long-time target of conservatives as it requires lengthy environmental reviews, or Environmental Impact Statements, for federal projects such as highway or energy projects before they can proceed.

It was the federal government’s first significant environmental law and has widely been known as the “Magna Carta” of environmental laws in America. It was designed to “create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans.”

However, more than 50 years after it took effect, critics say NEPA has become nothing more than a hindrance to new projects — including green energy projects — by needlessly drawing out the time it takes for federal agencies to complete projects. 

In 2019, New York’s legislature approved “congestion tolls,” which charge drivers more for entering lower Manhattan during peak travel times. It was supposed to go into effect in January 2021. However, because the plan involved federal-aid highways, it needed to undergo an environmental review due to NEPA. The process involved dozens of hearings and generated 28,000 pages of public comments, and was not completed until June 2023. The plan was suspended by Governor Hochul in June 2024. However, she revived the scheme in November 2024, and it went into effect in January, four years after its original timeline. 

NEPA also caused significant delays to a transmission line that is supposed to carry renewable energy from Canada to New England. The project was approved in 2019. However, it has been bogged down by environmental delays for years. The developers spent three years seeking approvals from state and federal agencies before construction could begin.

Once it appeared that construction was good to begin, a group of environmentalist organizations sued to block the project, claiming it would do harm to the environment as they cited a NEPA analysis. While the groups lost their battle, it added another five months to the project. 

Massachusetts regulators estimated that the delays would cost taxpayers an extra $500 million for the project. In January, the Department of Public Utilities in Massachusetts paved the way for the construction of the transmission line to continue, and it estimates that it will be finished online in 2026.

Such delays are not unusual with NEPA. The Institute for Progress reports that the average time it takes for an environmental impact statement to be completed is four and a half years, but it can take even longer. Meanwhile, the centrist Independent Center notes that while federal agencies are required to conduct environmental reviews, NEPA does not require “any mitigation of the environmental effects of a decision made by a federal agency.”

“So, instead of protecting the environment or causing federal projects to be redesigned to be more environmentally friendly, NEPA generally only extends the timeline for project completion,” the Independent Center says. “Agencies engage in long timelines and even longer documents to defend against litigation. Not environmental protection.”

The law also can impact private builders if they need federal permits for projects such as affordable housing developments, which will also prolong those efforts.

Supporters of NEPA say the law is having a positive impact on America as it gives people the opportunity to review federal projects and raise concerns that getting rid of the law would speed up climate change. 

President Biden’s administration issued two new rules for NEPA. One rule required agencies to consider so-called environmental justice in their decisions. 

Critics argue that the law empowers people in the Not In My Backyard camp, or so-called NIMBYs, to delay projects not for environmental reasons but due to concerns about crime or the impact on their property values. 

As for concerns about the impact on climate change with the end of NEPA regulations, the director of the International Politics and Economics Program at Middlebury College, Gary Winslett, posted on X that the move is “counterintuitively” good “for climate action.”

“It opens up way more opportunities for green energy transmission, better forest management, solar, wind, geothermal, and more,” he said. 

The Trump administration’s decision to end NEPA regulations follows the directive from an executive order signed by the president on his first day in office.

Tucked within an order titled “Unleashing American Energy” is a decision to revoke an executive order signed by President Carter in 1977 that gave regulatory authority to the organization that oversees the implementation of NEPA, the Council on Environmental Quality. The order also directed the council to explore rescinding all NEPA regulations and issue nonbinding guidance. 

Congress would still have to act to eliminate NEPA. However, Bloomberg reports that under Mr. Trump’s orders, the NEPA analyses will be streamlined and speed up the permitting process. 

The attempt to roll back environmental rules follows a decision by a district court in North Dakota that vacated a regulation issued by the Biden administration earlier this month. The judge, Daniel Traynor, ruled that the CEQ does not have the authority to issue binding regulations.

 In December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also ruled that the CEQ lacks regulatory authority and that its regulations have no effect.

https://www.nysun.com/article/trump-gut-magna-carta-environmental-law-hamstrung-development-decades