White House Balancing Speed, Care With Environmental Permitting

The White House is evaluating ways of making environmental permitting decisions within a reasonable time as part of the next round of changes to its regulations, an administration official said Tuesday.

That glimpse into the Council on Environmental Quality’s thinking suggests an awareness of a central tension in its effort to change the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The White House wants to restore strong environmental protections that were trimmed under President Donald Trump, but it also wants to ensure projects such as solar arrays and wind farms get permitted quickly enough to help decarbonize the economy.

As part ...