A coalition of oil and natural gas trade associations has expressed strong support for the "Standardized Permitting and Expediting Development Act" (SPEED Act) in a letter to Bruce Westerman, Chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources in the U.S. House of Representatives. The group, representing over 80 percent of domestic oil and natural gas production, emphasized the importance of this bipartisan legislation in reforming what they describe as an outdated permitting system.
The SPEED Act aims to address issues related to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which the coalition argues has become overly burdensome due to expanded requirements and applications over time. They assert that modernizing NEPA is crucial for reducing delays that hinder infrastructure projects across the nation.
According to the coalition, efforts during the Trump Administration to modernize NEPA were halted by the Biden Administration, which they claim introduced additional permitting obstacles. The coalition contends that federal bureaucracy often causes delays in vital infrastructure projects.
The SPEED Act proposes several changes to NEPA processes. These include establishing clearer thresholds for when actions qualify as "major federal actions," requiring agencies to focus only on direct environmental effects, eliminating duplicative documentation requests, reducing litigation timeframes from six years to 150 days, and setting deadlines for agency remands under NEPA.
The coalition praised Chairman Westerman's efforts in seeking solutions for reforming the nation's permitting system and pledged their support for advancing the SPEED Act.
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