The line is so often repeated that it verges on being a cliché: America can’t build things anymore. Not broadband, not electric transmission lines, not even nuclear power plants. While red tape is not always the sole cause, it has become a common and significant contributor to our national gridlock.
Decades-old laws governing energy permitting and environmental protection, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act, were no doubt crafted with noble intent. But today, they not only fail to truly protect the environment; even worse, they’ve become a potent mechanism to delay and kill development of all kinds.
Most permitting reform conversations focus on the energy sector – and NEPA receives the most attention of all, with good reason. The law was conceived as a kind of environmental speedbump, ensuring that developers and agencies “look before they leap.” But even NEPA was not intended to effectively mandate the multi-year approval process of today. The average completion timeline for an Environmental Impact Statement, the most onerous form of NEPA review, is now 4.5 years. Indeed, even NEPA’s legislative author, Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, argued that agencies and courts had “vastly inflat[ed] the requirements of the Environmental Impact Statement” (though he argued the benefits of the law outweighed these costs, perhaps a debatable assertion in the late 20th century but certainly off target today).
