The White House today unveiled final rules to speed up permitting for infrastructure projects — including transmission and low-carbon energy.
Why it matters: Accelerating timelines that often drag on for years would help realize the goals of the Democrats' 2022 climate law and the bipartisan 2021 infrastructure deal.
State of play: The Council on Environmental Quality rules, which implement permitting language in last year's debt ceiling agreement, include:
Wider use of "categorical exclusions," i.e. classes of projects exempt from detailed environmental review. It allows one agency to adopt exclusions used by another.
New deadlines and page limits for environmental studies and encouraging "programmatic" analyses that reduce project-specific study needed.
The rule requires agencies to focus on environmental justice.
It adds to other ways Biden officials say they're giving more resources and attention to getting projects across the finish line.
That includes roughly $1 billion in the 2022 law. Just yesterday the Federal Permitting Council announced $30 million for IT projects to boost efficiency.
Yes, but: The rules are rather modest compared with sweeping proposals that face long odds in Congress.
For instance, some lawmakers want firm deadlines on judicial reviews.
What we're watching: How much the new regulations really move the needle.
