Business Groups Seek Changes to Environmental Permitting Rule

Industry groups have flooded the White House with complaints about its proposed changes to the nation’s environmental permitting rules, spotlighting provisions that could be litigated or rolled back by a future Republican administration should their concerns go unaddressed.

Broadly, the groups said the proposal gives preferential treatment to projects the Biden administration likes, threatens to prolong agency analyses by making them too complicated, and increases the threat of litigation.

The proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules include a new process for federal agencies to use other agencies’ categorical exclusions, the wider use of programmatic reviews, and ...