Trump plans to “modernize” environmental impact reports

Enlarge / US President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce proposed new environmental policies at the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020. Trump spoke about proposed scale backs of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Today, the Trump administration announced a major overhaul to the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act. This is the legislation that requires the consideration of the environmental impacts of projects that the federal government is involved with. In an effort to limit the consideration of environmental impacts, the new rules will call for completion of environmental analyses on a time scale that's too short for a thorough evaluation. And the scope of the analysis will be curtailed so that many environmental impacts won't be considered at all.

In introducing the changes, Trump claimed that his administration was "modernizing" environmental impact analysis. But various environmental groups are already planning to contest the changes in court.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was part of a collection of environmental legislation passed in the early 1970s, a collection that includes the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Compared to the other legislation, its scope was relatively limited, applying only to projects and rules that involved a federal agency. But its impact proved to be significant, as it required that an environmental impact analysis be completed to assess the consequences of federal decisions and the results of that analysis to be considered prior to any decision to move forward.

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