Rich Powell of ClearPath writes in MarketWatch about Biden’s missed opportunity on climate policy.
- Without meaningful permitting reform, America’s climate and environmental goals will fall short.
- Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), it takes an average of 4.5 years for a project to complete the permitting process.
- Lawmakers can modernize permitting with a three-pronged approach that includes granting immediate approvals where no harm exists, carefully streamlining approvals where there is limited environmental impact, and resolving legal disputes in less than one year.
- Reforming and updating our permitting process is essential to bolstering energy security, spurring conservation, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“President Biden missed a critical opportunity during his State of the Union address. In touting the bipartisan infrastructure law, he directed a comment towards Republicans – ‘I’ll see you at the groundbreaking.’ In reality, breaking ground on anything will need a permit, and we unfortunately did not hear a plan to fix the permitting crisis.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
