WASHINGTON - President Biden's administration will seek to hasten construction of roads, bridges, wind farms, and more by tweaking the federal review process for environmental and other permits, officials said Tuesday. The new permitting plan includes five components, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said. They are:

Consolidating decision-making among agencies to reduce the number of federal permits a project would need. The White House will also set up teams of sector-specific experts in an effort to streamline permitting applications from various industries.
Establishing timeline goals and tracking project information.
Engaging in “meaningful outreach and communication” with states, tribes and local governments to gain support and input from projects’ starting points.
Improving technical assistance and support to nonfederal partners.
Using existing agency resources to prioritize permitting review.

The permitting plan is meant to build on provisions in last year’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law. That law created a permitting council to bring agencies together at the beginning of the permitting process.

Less than 10% of the funding in the infrastructure law will be spent by the federal government, said Samantha Silverberg, the White House’s deputy infrastructure implementation coordinator. To encourage states, tribes, cities and private companies to build quickly, the administration wants to reduce permitting delays.

For the full article click HERE