Last week, President Donald J. Trump hosted a CEO Town Hall on Unleashing American Business at the White House to discuss ways to work together and strengthen the economy.
One of the biggest takeaways was that under the current Federal permitting process, it can take a decade or more for the Federal Government to understand the potential environmental impact of a project. President Trump showed a flow chart that outlines just how extremely complicated this process is.
This Federal highway permitting flow chart shows that 10 different governmental entities need to make 15 different decisions. These decisions are governed by the provisions of 29 laws and 5 executive orders – this does not include any permits required under State or local law.
While we are strong proponents of protecting the environment, spending tens of millions of dollars on documents that provide no tangible environmental benefit is extraordinarily inefficient.
Additionally, Britain, Australia, and Canada all have dramatically faster permitting processes, demonstrating that a 10-year process is not necessary to protect the environment.
President Trump is committed to reorganizing and accelerating this permitting process. This Administration has reached out to 16 different Federal agencies, Governors, Mayors, Congress, and industry leaders to get the best ideas on how to drastically reduce this process.