A bipartisan deal announced Saturday to raise the $31.4trn US debt ceiling into 2025 would also streamline federal environmental reviews for large infrastructure projects, helping reduce development costs and facilitate the country’s energy transition.
The measures represent the first statutory reforms in more than 40 years to the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions including permit applications.
Lengthy and often duplicative federal environmental reviews without fixed completion timelines are a major impediment for construction of new and upgraded electric transmission lines, energy storage facilities, pipelines, ports, rail networks, and other infrastructure necessary for adoption of cleaner fuels and transportation.