“President Trump’s executive order on infrastructure isn’t a ‘streamline’; it is a steam roller over our bedrock environmental protections at the expense of public health and communities. Ostensibly issued to speed the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure, today’s order instead weakens his administration’s enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and provides another corporate giveaway at our expense.
Too often, infrastructure projects approved without adequate review waste millions of dollars and pollute the communities they’re intended to serve. Energy Transfer Pipelines’ (ETP) risky Rover Pipeline project that would bring fracked gas from Appalachian states to the Great Lakes region has already contaminated wetlands with 7 spills and drawn an $2.4 million in fines from the state of Ohio.
The hardrock mining industry has complained about permitting taking ‘too long’, yet the Government Accountability Office investigated industry complaints and found that mining companies themselves, not regulations, were responsible for most delays.
NEPA and related laws were wisely put in place to ensure impacts to communities and the environment were considered when agencies make decisions that affect them. President Trump’s executive order trades public health and a clean environment for giveaways to billionaires like ETP’s Kelcy Warren.”