Environmental Permit Tweaks Trump Championed on Chopping Block

The White House is about to issue the final version of its rulemaking to unwind the nation’s environmental permitting laws, an administration spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs completed its review of the rule on Wednesday and sent it back to Council on Environmental Quality, which “will be issuing the final rule soon,” the spokeswoman said.

CEQ’s rule is the first of two sets of changes that, taken together, would restore the National Environmental Policy Act to its pre-2020 state, and in some cases go further.

The proposed changes are at the fulcrum of a tension ...