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October 2, 2023

Attorney General Bird Leads Letter Opposing Biden Administration Radical Environmental Scheme for Development Projects

DES MOINES- Today, Attorney General Bird led a coalition of 24 states in a letter opposing a proposed Biden Administration rule that will illegally mandate social, environmental, and race-based regulations for infrastructure projects and stop development in its tracks. The Biden Administration’s woke environmental scheme is part of its larger...

october 2, 2023

Attorney General Bird Leads Letter Opposing Biden Administration Radical Environmental Scheme for Development Projects

DES MOINES- Today, Attorney General Bird led a coalition of 24 states in a letter opposing a proposed Biden Administration rule that will illegally mandate social, environmental, and race-based regulations for infrastructure projects and stop development in its tracks.

The Biden Administration’s woke environmental scheme is part of its larger radical climate change plan. With the new rule in effect, Americans will pay more for energy; face delays for projects such as new housing, power plants, roads, and bridges; and even have to cancel projects due to significant price hikes and delays.

This Biden Administration rule not only eliminates the common-sense Trump-era reforms that made development easier, but it goes even further than before. The new rule imposes expensive red-tape regulations for project developers and sets an illegal double standard. With the new rule in effect, projects that align with the Biden Administration’s radical climate change agenda will be favored, while projects that use traditional energy sources will face stricter regulations.

“The Biden Administration will stop at nothing to force its woke climate agenda on the rest of America,” said Attorney General Bird. “Environmental activists shouldn’t dictate how or when we can build a home or bridge. This rule is nothing more than another illegal power grab. And if left unchecked, the new rule will devastate important, job-creating infrastructure projects.”

A coalition of 17 governors, including Governor Kim Reynolds, also wrote to oppose the rule.

The proposed rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act and federal law requiring that significant legislation go through Congress, rather than unelected bureaucrats. // CHEVRON DERFERENCE DEREGULATION

Iowa led the letter joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Read the full letter here

ref 18 pp

...tember 29, 2023 Council on Environmental Quality 730 Jackson Place NW Washington, DC 20503 Re: Reconsideration of Council on Environmental Quality National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations Revisions Phase Two (Docket ID CEQ– 2023–0003) The Attorneys General of Iowa and the 23 undersigned States respectfully submit these comments in response to the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Revisions of the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) Implementing Regulations Revisions Phase Two (Proposed Rule).1 C

EQ’s Proposed Rule serves as a dramatic example of federal and administrative overreach. Rather than serve its long-term goals of collecting information about large development projects, the Proposed Rule injects major substantive considerations into the NEPA process. In doing so, the Proposed Rule turns NEPA on its head, and turns it farther away from the effective reform process started in 2020. This radical and illegal climate power grab goes far beyond CEQ’s delegated authority. Congress passed NEPA to achieve laudable goals: to reduce delays and promote better decision-making consistent with national environmental policy.2 Tasked with NEPA’s

...

p 13?

other requirements,” by contrast, will leave an agency unsure of when it has considered enough factors in its analysis. That uncertainty will lead to front-end delays and back-end litigation risk. How can a court determine whether an NGO plaintiff is correct that the agency didn’t consider enough of these “other requirements” in its initial planning? And even if a court adjudicated that issue, the guidance is vague enough that other courts in other jurisdictions could come to conflicting outcomes. Such a regulatory patchwork stands to create real harm, particularly given the lack of certainty for the Proposed Rule’s consistent application.

Similarly, references in the Proposed Rule to “meaningful” public engagement and public participation introduce a fuzzy, unpredictable, un-analyzable element into the NEPA process. The 2020 CEQ regulatory revision was largely motivated by a desire to streamline and simplify what had grown over the decades since NEPA’s enactment into a sprawling, byzantine, insiders’ game. Project reviews were taking too long, taking up too many pages, sprawling into subject areas beyond what Congress intended, and slowing down or deterring needed permits and other actions.

Many, if not most, supporters of the NEPA amendments in the recent FRA intended to similarly streamline the process, as evidence by those amendments’ adoption of key aspects of the 2020 rule. But CEQ here is adding or restoring (from the original 1978 regulations) elements that will cause longer, broader-ranging reviews and less legal certainty. The Proposed Rule is therefore in tension not only with the original statute, but also with Congress’s intent in amending NEPA earlier this year.

respectfully submitted,

Brenna Bird

Attorney General of Iowa

Steve Marshall

Attorney General of Alabama

Treg Taylor

Attorney General of Alaska

Tim Griffin

Attorney General of Arkansas

Ashley Moody

Attorney General of Florida

Chris Carr

Attorney General of Georgia

Raúl R. Labrador

Attorney General of Idaho

Theodore E. Rokita

Attorney General of Indiana

Kris Kobach

Attorney General of Kansas

Jeff Landry

Attorney General of Louisiana

Andrew T. Bailey

Attorney General of Missouri

Lynn Fitch

Attorney General of

Mississippi

Austin Knudsen

Attorney General of Montana

Mike Hilgers

Nebraska Attorney General

Drew Wrigley

Attorney General of North

Dakota

Dave Yost

Attorney General of Ohio

Gentner Drummond

Attorney General of Oklahoma

Alan Wilson

Attorney General of South

Carolina

Jonathan Skrmetti

Tennessee Attorney General

Ken Paxton

Attorney General of Texas

Sean D. Reyes

Attorney General of Utah

Jason Miyares

Attorney General of Virginia

Patrick Morrisey

Attorney General of West

Virginia

Bridget Hill

Attorney General of Wyoming