Biden restores some environmental permitting requirements loosened by Trump

The Biden administration on Tuesday moved to restore some of the environmental regulations governing infrastructure project permitting that were rolled back by the Trump administration.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is finalizing its “phase 1” changes governing the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires environmental reviews for projects such as highways or pipelines.

The Trump administration axed or changed several regulations governing how NEPA is implemented, making changes that it said would speed up the permitting process – though critics argued they came at the environment’s expense.