By Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press
For years, green energy supporters have argued that a slow and ineffective license process in the United States hinders a transition to clean electricity sources.
“Authorizing reform”, as it is called, is necessary to release green energies like solar energy and wind, which do not emit greenhouse gases that cause climate change, supported supporters.
The Trump administration means the need to accelerate energy projects, but not for wind or solar energy, which is the fastest growth source of electricity production in the United States
The Interior Department said on Wednesday evening that it adopted another process for energy projects to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, shortening exams at around 28 days and 14 days respectively. It is generally necessary for about two years for the federal government to approve a complete declaration of environmental impact or up to one year to carry out an environmental assessment. The environmental law of 1970, known as NEPA, is designed to ensure community guarantees during magazines for a wide range of federal proposals, including roads, bridges and energy projects.
Procedures apply to energy sources, including oil, natural gas, oil, uranium, coal, biofuels and critical minerals. They will also apply to geothermal energy and hydroelectricity, both which produce electricity without emitting greenhouse gases warming to the planet.
President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in power to accelerate the development of fossil fuels.
Interior secretary Doug Burgum said that the Department reduced unnecessary delays to accelerate resources that are essential to the national economy, military preparation and global competitiveness.
The heavy process has helped to allow China to dominate and refine critical minerals, said Rich Nolan, president and chief executive officer of the National Mining Association. Rationalization will make the United States more competitive, he added.
The president of Earthjustice, Abigail Dillen, said that the administration uses “a false energy emergency” to eliminate essential legal guarantees.
“It is a manifestly illegal decision, and we will see them in court,” she said in a statement.
The Sierra Club said that it feared that the new approach effectively reduces environmental examination and public contribution to a formality.
“These arbitrary deadlines make it impossible to examine the risk of potentially dangerous projects,” Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club land protection program said on Thursday in a statement. “A poor quality examination means that the real dangers of a project can only be known when air or water over thousands of people count is dangerously polluted.”
Randi Spivak, at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that the interior plan “proves that the energy emergency manufactured by Trump is a hoax designed to achieve new hydraulic fracturing and the exploitation of coal”. Spivak, director of public land policies at the center, said it was a “losing agreement” for all others that fossil fuel leaders support Trump.
During the Biden administration, the Interior Department attempted to move quickly to energy projects, but did it within the fairly comfortable limits of existing license processes, said Travis Annatoyn, who was then the deputy lawyer for the department for energy and mineral resources.
Burgum, on the other hand, is trying to modify the entire authorization process at a deep structural level during the night, added Annatoyn, now advisor to the law firm Arnold & Porter.
By excluding solar and wind energy, the administration is likely to undervalue the assertive justification for the energy emergency.
“In an emergency, you would like to pay electrons on the grid from any source you might find,” he said.
Last week, the Interior Department published an order to stop the construction of an offshore wind project to feed more than 500,000 houses in New York. Burgum said he was doing it because it seemed that Biden administration had precipitated approval. The Norwegian Society’s equine followed a seven -year license process before starting to build Empire Wind last year.
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Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
