Free Republic

The Supreme Court unanimously decided on Thursday to limit environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects in a case that will have sweeping impacts on President Donald Trump’s energy agenda. In a move that will restrict power of federal judges, Thursday’s decision reduces the scope of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to focus solely on immediate impacts. Under NEPA, federal agencies are required to study any potentially significant environmental consequences of federal permits for infrastructure projects. “NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects...

Pennsylvania Rep. Rob Bresnahan is the latest swing-district Republican to issue a warning over deep spending cuts GOP leaders are targeting for key safety net programs in a bill to enact President Donald Trump's massive domestic agenda. “I ran for Congress under a promise of always doing what is best for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” said Bresnahan in a statement Friday. “If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it. Pennsylvania’s Eighth District chose me to advocate for them in Congress. These benefits are promises...

Jan 3 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Friday issued the final mining permit for Perpetua Resources' (PPTA.O), opens new tab Idaho antimony and gold project, a move aimed at spurring U.S. production of a critical mineral at the center of a widening trade war between Washington and Beijing. Permitting for the mine, backed by billionaire investor John Paulson, comes after Beijing last month blocked exports to the U.S. of antimony,... Perpetua's mine will supply more than 35% of America's annual antimony needs once it opens by 2028 and produce 450,000 ounces of gold each year,...The project has not won...

A federal appeals court determined that the White House does not have the authority to issue binding environmental regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), upending several decades of the practice. NEPA is a federal law that requires federal agencies to conduct a review of environmental impacts before making any decisions and then issue a “detailed statement” of the environmental review. In a divided decision Tuesday, the D.C. District Court of Appeals ruled that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), established to instruct agencies on NEPA compliance, does not have the power to issue regulations on other...

Pecksville, Lackawanna County — State Senator and Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano was holding his 'Restore Freedom Tour' in Monroe, Luzerne and Lackawanna counties today. Mastriano is asking Pennsylvanians to volunteer for his campaign in the hopes that he can beat his Democratic challenger Attorney General Josh Shapiro next month. Former attorney general Ernie Preate was a guest speaker and predicts Republicans will be victorious November 8th including in Harrisburg. “Mark my words, there is a red wave coming,” said Preate. Preate was one of several speakers at Mastriano's campaign event at the Fiorelli Banquet and Conference Center in Peckville...

Arizona’s AG is arguing Biden's immigration policies are in violation of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) — because illegals keep littering as they hop the border. Mark Brnovich said he would force Biden to resume construction of the border wall and reinstate Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy until DHS has complied with NEPA’s requirement that federal agencies assess the environmental impact of major policy changes prior to their implementation. “I think it’s imperative that we do everything we can to try to address the crisis at our border, so I’m using the tools that I have in my toolbox,”...

The Trump administration recently published the first comprehensive revision of federal regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. Environmental groups predictably denounced the initiative. Among its many detractors, the Wilderness Society insists that these regulations will “essentially gut” NEPA by putting “polluters in charge of environment protection.” This objection wholly overlooks NEPA’s deeply dysfunctional features. From its inception in 1970, NEPA had two basic objectives: first, to require all new projects to receive a thorough and transparent vetting of potential environmental risks; second, to expand democratic participation in the review process via public hearings. Five decades later, it...

Citing the "national emergency" spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that directs federal agencies to bypass environmental laws to expedite infrastructure projects, including those on federal lands, as a stimulus. Legal challenges are expected to follow... The directive, which Trump issued after 6:00 PM on June 4, is intended to speed up federal approvals for transportation, energy and other projects to boost job growth and related investment. Also on June 4, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed to extend to all federal clean air rules a similar change to its mercury-emissions...

Signed into law on January 1, 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires Federal agencies to consider and inform the public of the environmental effects of proposed major Federal actions. NEPA’s enactment was the culmination of legislative efforts to establish a national environmental policy and incorporate the consideration of environmental issues into the Federal Government’s decision-making processes. Today, on the 50th anniversary of this milestone legislation, we take the opportunity to reflect upon NEPA’s goals of protecting our Nation’s natural resources and recommit to ensuring a safe, healthy, and productive environment for all Americans. From commuting to work or...

Though a final draft of the environmental assessment report detailing the proposed Interstate 10 widening through Baton Rouge was originally scheduled to be presented at a public hearing this month, state officials now say it will likely be February before the report is complete. There’s no particular reason why consultants preparing the report are running behind, according to Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson. “It’s just that engineering is a much slower process than the public or I, for that matter, would like it to be,” he says. “They’re gathering some additional data as they try to...

A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected environmentalists’ arguments that the Trump administration has to evaluate the climate change impact of leasing federal land for coal mining. The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously ruled that the Interior Department is not obligated to update its 1979 review of the environmental impact of the federal coal program, despite substantial new scientific findings about climate change and the significant role that coal plays in warming the atmosphere.The judges said that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) doesn’t compel a new environmental impact statement. “The fact...

The BLM released its draft environmental impact statement Thursday. It is proposing amending up to 11 resource management plans in the two states. In 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined the Gunnison sage-grouse requires listing as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. ... about 5,000 breeding Gunnison sage-grouse live in the two states. Some 4,000 live in the Gunnison Basin, and the others in six satellite populations in Colorado and a seventh in Utah. ... Fish and Wildlife pointed to the low numbers of birds in the other populations and their range of habitat threats as...

Building that bridge or expanding that highway just became more difficult under a rigorous standard issued Tuesday by the Obama administration that will make it easier to block a wide range of projects in the name of climate change. The final guidance broadens the National Environmental Policy Act by requiring agencies to quantify the impact of activities that require federal permits not just on the environment but also on “projected direct and indirect GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions.” ... Republicans blasted the guidance as the latest in a flurry of resident Obama’s end-of-term executive actions, led by the Clean Power Plan,...

Obama on federal coal mining is a throwback to Carter administration failings. resident Obama's plot to use the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to kill federal coal mining with a thousand paper cuts is not the first time he has used NEPA to try to end energy development. Disturbingly, his scheme is a throwback to President Carter and a decade-long moratorium that ended only when President Reagan took office. Meanwhile millions of Americans, vast regions and the nation's economy will suffer. In 2009, the Obama administration settled a "sweetheart lawsuit" by environmental groups by agreeing to a NEPA study on...

The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture, claiming the agencies' strategy to disallow new mining on or near greater sage grouse habitats is a breach of "numerous federal laws and regulations." The lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeks an order voiding the federal government's land-use plan amendments submitted last year that would directly prohibit new hard rock mining on 233,300 acres in Utah. "The state of Utah claims that the 2015 federal plan amendments disregarded the hallmark of federal land management -- multiple use and sustained yield --...

Groups question keeping Four Corners Power Plant open for 25 more years. A coalition of environmental groups has filed a notice of intent to sue the Office of Surface Mining, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others over a July decision to allow the Four Corners Power Plant to operate through 2041. A coalition of environmental groups announced earlier this week its intent to take legal action against several federal agencies for extending operations at the Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo Mine just outside Farmington. On Dec. 21, San Juan Citizen Alliance, among other regional and national conservation groups,...

On September 24, 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a Notice of Proposed Withdrawal (“BLM notice”), proposing to withdraw from mineral location and entry federal lands identified as “sagebrush focal areas” in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM notice commences a two-year temporary segregation period, prohibiting location and entry of new mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands in these sagebrush focal areas. If the BLM decides to withdraw the area at the end of the segregation period, the withdrawal will last up to 20 years, but could be extended in the...

Attorneys general from thirteen states filed a lawsuit Monday challenging EPA's new rule defining the waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), asserting that the rule expands the scope of clean water regulations to lands that are dry much of the year and increases the federal government's authority over land use. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who joined in the lawsuit, noted that 35 states have filed comments in opposition to the rule and several other attorneys general are considering filing challenges. The EPA is overstepping...

Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to call today for the Republican-controlled General Assembly to send him a budget that boosts state education funding and provides relief for school district property taxes while raising the rates of the sales and personal income taxes. His plan for doing so includes a proposal to raise the personal income tax rate in July 2015 from 3.07 percent to 3.7 percent, while increasing the eligibility for a poverty exemption, according to a briefing document prepared by the administration. He will propose increasing the state sales tax in July 2016 from 6 to 6.6 percent while...

The Los Angeles Times reports today: _______________________ After encountering criticism from environmental groups, Gov. Jerry Brown signaled Wednesday that he plans to withdraw his controversial proposal to protect the California bullet train project from injunctions sought by environmental lawsuits. Brown’s staff told key environmental groups that he would no longer include modifications to the California Environmental Quality Act in a package of legislation this month asking for $6 billion to start construction of the high-speed rail project. …........ Dan Richard, chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, had first raised the possibility of some legal protections from lawsuits in a...