7/15/2020

WASHINGTON API welcomed the Council on Environmental Qualitys (CEQ) improvements to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations. The finalized rule reduces the red tape slowing critical infrastructure projects and job creation across the country while strengthening environmental progress.

NEPA modernization will help America streamline permitting to move job-creating infrastructure projects off the drawing board and into development, API President and CEO Mike Sommers said. Todays action is essential to U.S. energy leadership and environmental progress, providing more certainty to jumpstart not only the modernized pipeline infrastructure we need to deliver cleaner fuels but highways, bridges and renewable energy. These reforms will help accelerate the nations economic recovery and advance energy infrastructure while continuing necessary environmental reviews.

A recent report by the National Petroleum Council concluded that overlapping and duplicative regulatory requirements, inconsistencies across multiple federal and state agencies, and unnecessarily lengthy administrative procedures have created a complex and unpredictable permitting process. While there have been bipartisan actions by Congress and the Executive Branch to expedite the permitting process, more improvements are necessary.

Potential investments in energy-related projects alone have been estimated at more than $1 trillion over the next 15 years. Todays NEPA modifications support the efficient permitting and construction of this critical infrastructure, including lower-carbon energy options like natural gas and renewables, as well as future clean-energy innovations.

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API welcomes modernized NEPA regulations that strengthen US environmental progress and support infrastructure development - WorldOil