In Further Trump Reversal, White House Moves To Put Climate Back In Infrastructure Equation

[babylonsister]

In Further Trump Reversal, White House Moves To Put Climate Back In Infrastructure Equation
Federal regulators have been instructed to consider planet-warming pollution before approving large projects like pipelines and airports.
Chris D'Angelo
Jan 6, 2023, 05:52 PM EST


President Joe Biden’s White House on Friday issued new guidance for federal agencies to assess greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts when reviewing proposed infrastructure projects.

The updated guidance from the White House Council on Environmental Quality furthers the administration’s reversal of a major Trump-era move, the industry-friendly overhaul of the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the country’s bedrock environmental laws. It is a supplement to a White House rule last year that required federal agencies to once again evaluate all climate environmental impacts when reviewing pipelines, power plants, airports and other projects.

NEPA reviews “should quantify proposed actions’ [greenhouse gas] emissions, place GHG emissions in appropriate context and disclose relevant GHG emissions and relevant climate impacts, and identify alternatives and mitigation measures to avoid or reduce GHG emissions,” the new guidance reads.

CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory said in a statement that the guidelines will “ensure we’re building sustainable, resilient infrastructure for the 21st century and beyond.”

more...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-nepa-guide-climate-emissions-infrastructure_n_63b88c08e4b0d6f0b9faf29a

[Hortensis]

1. :) Great. But fwiw,battling climate change is built into ALL our big legislation

in many ways. They're all climate bills, absolutely including the giant infrastructure package. Misleading headline.

[quaint]

2. All approvals are not legislated.

Since 1970, NEPA has protected air, water and land by requiring federal regulators to conduct detailed environmental assessments of major infrastructure projects. In 2020, the Trump administration finalized the first major update to the law in more than four decades, part of a broad administrative effort to fast-track energy projects and other development. Along with allowing agencies to ignore climate impacts, the rewrite largely cut out the public from the environmental review process. Critics condemned the rollback as an attack on environmental justice, as low-income people and communities of color are often most impacted by large-scale infrastructure projects.

The White House council’s new recommendations replace and build upon 2016 guidance from the Obama administration that the Trump administration rescinded shortly after taking office. Along with prioritizing greenhouse gas emissions in the environmental review process, the guidance calls on federal agencies to “identify any communities with environmental justice concerns” and to “consider how impacts from the proposed action could potentially amplify climate change-related hazards such as storm surge, heat waves, drought, flooding, and sea level change.”

[Hortensis]

3. Certainly there's a needed purpose to this step. The headline's

very misleading is all.

Speaking of federal agencies, the concessions McCarthy made would allow congress to legislate more control over them, in this session a RW majority generally fanatically opposed to climate action. How it'll all work out, I have no idea. But that they sought control would not be not a surprise to Biden or Dems in congress of course.