Agriculture Department’s Permitting Rewrite Limits Public Input

The Trump administration is speeding up environmental reviews of large infrastructure projects under a final rule set to be published by the US Department of Agriculture Friday.

It’s the latest move in an ongoing reshaping of how agencies measure environmental impacts and either greenlight, slow down, or stop big projects such as roads, bridges, and energy infrastructure.

But environmentalists say USDA’s new rule will let companies log, mine, and drill in national forests without having to pay attention to the public’s objections.

Under the new rule, draft environmental impact statements under the National Environmental Policy Act no longer ...