Federal agency over Utah’s public lands quietly 'streamlines' its environmental reviews

By Brian Maffly

In another nod to the needs of the oil and gas industry, the U.S. Department of Interior has instructed its agencies to “streamline” environment reviews and impose severe time and page limits on critical decision-making documents. With no fanfare, Secretarial Order 3355 was issued Thursday bearing the signature of David Bernhardt, an erstwhile industry lobbyist who was recently confirmed as deputy secretary, Ryan Zinke’s No. 2 at Interior. The stated purpose is to cut out “needlessly complex” analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which poses “impediments to efficient and effective review,” the order states. But environmentalists suspect the edict, which has yet to be made publicly available, is a cover for fast-tracking industrial development on millions of acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management. “There is no good reason to shortcut or sidestep opportunities for the American public to have a say about what happens on their lands,” said Nada Culver, director of agency policy for The Wilderness Society. he order purports to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order of Aug. 15  for “streamlining” infrastructure projects, such as roads and bridges. Interior‘s order limits the number of pages for environmental impact statements, known as EISs, to 150, excluding appendices, or to 300 for “unusually complex projects.” It also requires those studies to be complete within one year of the agency notifying the public it intends to conduct a review. Interior’s assistant secretaries will have one month to submit their ideas for streamlining NEPA processes. Similarly, each Interior bureau — including the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service — must submit a proposal for page limits and deadlines for environmental assessments, or EAs, which are less comprehensive than an EIS...more