NTU applauded the Trump Administration's finalized reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act announced today. The new NEPA rules will give infrastructure and construction projects, among others, a much more streamlined approval process. This will allow more projects to be delivered quicker, and save taxpayers money.
NEPA rules are well-intentioned, but have driven up costs and delays for infrastructure projects in the fifty years since its enactment. The average time to complete the NEPA process increased from 2.2 years in the 1970s to 6.6 years in 2011, according to the Treasury Department. The Trump Administration's announced reforms will help alleviate these delays on much-needed new projects.
As NTU wrote in our letter endorsing NEPA reform:
For taxpayers and private investors that finance these projects, it should be unacceptable that these needless delays continue to swell. The United States has a long tradition of building impressive structures, and the government-driven delays ingrained into our permitting process undermines this history... These reforms will allow builders to employ more workers and bring their infrastructure projects online ahead of schedule and under budget.
President Trump's NEPA reforms are a major step forward for infrastructure projects and for taxpayers. Being able to deliver more projects on time will be a boon to Americans and taxpayers everywhere. We commend the administration for enacting a pro-taxpayer rule and look forward to engaging further on additional infrastructure reforms.