Biden Re-imposes Punishing Regulation that Trump Removed

April 19, 2022

President Biden is restoring a massive regulatory roadblock that President Trump had removed. Today, the White House is announcing that it will once again require federal government agencies to consider climate impacts before approving major projects like highways and pipelines. 

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law in the 1970s and serves the important role of making sure projects don’t destroy America’s air or water. But in recent years, the law has been weaponized by progressives to slow down or completely kill major infrastructure projects. In 2020, the Trump administration clarified the regulation in order to speed up approvals for critical projects. Now, Biden is reversing that.

The New York Times writes, “The administration plans to resurrect requirements of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act that had been removed by President Donald J. Trump, who complained that they slowed down the development of mines, road expansions and similar projects. The final rule announced Tuesday would require federal agencies to conduct an analysis of the greenhouse gases that could be emitted over the lifetime of a proposed project, as well as how climate change might affect new highways, bridges and other infrastructure, according to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.”

The Times highlights how these approvals are already a massive hurdle for project developers and Biden’s actions will only make approvals much harder to receive. “The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a trade organization, wrote in comments to the Council on Environmental Quality that federal reviews for many transportation projects take five to seven years, with some lasting as long as 14 years. The new rule, it argued, would make matters even worse.”

This action is very similar to the punishing regulation that Biden’s unelected bureaucrats at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) tried to ram through in March. Power The Future is holding FERC accountable. Join our effort by heading to ProtectAmericanEnergy.com and signing our petition. If we don’t stand up to these regulators, they won’t stop.

You can bet the Biden Administration will use today’s beefed-up regulatory burden to further slow down important energy projects permits for mines and pipelines. President Trump cut red tape and America achieved true energy independence and dominance. President Biden is doing everything he can to undo that.