Trump Rule Would Exclude Climate Change in Infrastructure Planning

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/climate/trump-nepa-climate-change.html?fbclid=IwAR3mKJIZIfSufHSotYemadAPNSTCYnXR_LbvAMjZLwChotFritVzo3UpY7s

By Lisa Friedman
Jan. 3, 2020 Updated 5:30 p.m. ET

Federal agencies would no longer have to take climate change into account when they assess the environmental impacts of highways, pipelines and other major infrastructure projects, according to a Trump administration plan that would weaken one of the benchmark environmental laws of the modern era.

The proposed changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act could sharply reduce obstacles to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and other fossil fuel projects that have been stymied when courts ruled that the Trump administration did not properly consider climate change when analyzing the environmental effects of the projects.

•••••

According to one government official who has seen the proposed regulation but was not authorized to speak about it publicly, the administration will more narrowly define the type of project that requires an environmental review. That could make it likely that more projects will sail through the approval process without having to disclose effects like hazardous waste discharges, the removal of trees or increased air pollution.

The new rule also would no longer require agencies to consider the “cumulative” consequences of new infrastructure. In recent years courts have interpreted that requirement as a mandate to study the effects of allowing more planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. It also has meant understanding the impacts of rising sea levels and other results of climate change on a given project.

Once the proposed rules are filed in the federal register, the public will have 60 days to comment on them, the official said. A final regulation is expected before the presidential election in November.

•••••