WASHINGTON (September 22)—The R Street Institute applauds the introduction of the Building U.S. Infrastructure through Limited Delays & Efficient Reviews (BUILDER) Act by Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.). The legislation provides updates to the National Environmental Policy Act and aims to return regulatory approval times to what was originally intended when NEPA was first passed 50 years ago.

“The drafters of NEPA never intended for the review process to drag on for as long as 10 years, as the current process sometimes does,” said R Street senior fellow Josiah Neeley. “All sorts of projects, including an increasing number of clean energy projects, are being held up by these costly and unnecessary delays.”

Neeley also noted that NEPA reform has been a bipartisan issue in recent years: “The Obama administration implemented some NEPA reforms as part of the 2015 FAST Act, and the Trump administration has more recently implemented some changes via executive order, so there is clearly a bipartisan recognition that the current system isn’t working. It is good to see so much interest in Congress to pursue lasting NEPA reform, as the nation’s continued growth of clean energy and rising demand for electricity infrastructure is elevating its importance.”

Learn more about NEPA from Neeley’s op-ed in the Washington Examiner, “Streamlining environmental regulations doesn’t have to endanger the environment.”

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