Washington, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Energy Subcommittee Republican Leader Fred Upton (R-MI), Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Republican Leader John Shimkus (R-IL), and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Republican Leader Bob Latta (R-OH) released a statement following the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)’s announcement of the final rule updating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations.
“While we must ensure strong environmental standards and protections, it is long past time to update NEPA to improve its processes. This 50-year-old law to facilitate federal decisions has morphed into a costly, burdensome, bureaucratic review process, producing hundreds of pages of reports and years of unnecessary delays and uncertainty for vital infrastructure projects around the nation. These outdated and inefficient regulations unnecessarily increase costs of public and private infrastructure projects, and result in millions of dollars in lawsuits.
“Today’s final rule provides much-needed updates that will restore NEPA to its original purpose of promoting smart decision making, maintaining environmental quality, and allowing for innovative, resilient infrastructure. We will continue to work with CEQ as this rule takes effect," said Walden, Upton, Shimkus, and Latta.
