The changes proposed Wednesday will restore regulatory certainty and “help ensure that American infrastructure gets built right the first time and delivers real benefits - not harms - to people who live nearby,” Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said.Ĭontrary to assertions by the Trump administration, Mallory and other White House officials said, the new rule will actually speed up completion of major projects, since a rigorous review is more likely to withstand a legal challenge by environmental groups or states. The 2020 changes caused implementation challenges for federal agencies and “sowed confusion among stakeholders and the general public,” the White House said in a statement. The rule change imposed last year restricted the timelines for environmental reviews and public comment and allowed federal officials to disregard a project’s role in cumulative effects, such as climate change. He and his administration frequently expressed frustration at rules they said unnecessarily slowed approval for interstate oil and gas pipelines and other big projects. Trump made slashing government regulations a hallmark of his presidency. The White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday it will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions.įormer President Donald Trump overhauled the rules last year in a bid to accelerate projects he said would boost the economy and provide jobs. The reviews were scaled back by the Trump administration in a bid to fast-track the projects. WASHINGTON (AP) - In the latest reversal of a Trump-era environmental rollback, President Joe Biden is restoring federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects such as highways and pipelines.

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