Realtors Join Trump in Jan 2020 to reform NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act. The National Association of Realtors has argued that reforms to scale back regulatory burdens while retaining strong environmental quality standards will help alleviate housing inventory constraints. Trump agrees and says the reforms will help streamline approval of infrastructure and housing projects, highways, and energy pipelines. The plan is still subject to public hearings before it can be approved.
Environmental groups disagree. "This isn’t about 'permitting reform,' 'modernizing,' or 'streamlining,'" said Christy Goldfuss, who chaired the Council on Environmental Quality under President Barack Obama. "This is about allowing pipelines and dirty fossil fuel projects to bulldoze communities with less public input, and less disclosure of potentially harmful public health, environmental, and notably: climate change impacts."
The new proposal imposes a two-year deadline for environmental impact statements, one year for less rigorous environmental assessments, and expands the number of projects that could be excluded from NEPA reviews altogether. Environmentalists says the proposal ignores climate change and will endanger the public. Trump's administration repealed Obama's 2017 era guidance on the issue.
The EPA reviews the environmental impact of projects under the Clean Air Act.
Video Source: Gage Skidmore