Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:
The legislation, known as the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act, or SPEED Act, passed the House with support from Democratic Reps. Jim Costa of California, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Adam Gray of California, John Mannion of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Marc Veasey of Texas. All Republicans present voted in favor except Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
The bill is spearheaded by Golden and House Committee on Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman of Arkansas. Critics argue the vote marks a significant bipartisan effort to roll back NEPA, which is often described as the “Magna Carta” of federal environmental laws because it requires environmental review and public participation before major federally permitted projects move forward.
In a statement following the vote, Food and Water Watch legal director Tarah Heinzen said the measure would fundamentally undermine those protections. “For decades, NEPA has ensured logical decision-making and community involvement when the federal government considers projects that could harm people and the environment,” Heinzen said. “The SPEED Act would eviscerate NEPA’s protections.”
Food and Water Watch outlined several ways the bill would weaken the law. According to the group, the SPEED Act would drastically limit the scope of projects subject to environmental review, potentially allowing factory farms, coal plants, and other polluting facilities to build or expand without comprehensive analysis or meaningful public input. The bill would also impose unusually short deadlines for legal challenges and restrict courts’ ability to stop unlawful projects. Opponents say it would further tilt decision making toward corporate interests by limiting agencies’ ability to rely on the best available science when evaluating environmental and health risks.
“Today’s absurd House vote is yet another handout to corporate polluters at the expense of everyday people who have to live with the real-world impacts of toxic pollution from dirty industries like fossil fuels and factory farms,” Heinzen said. “This nonsense must be dead on arrival in the Senate.”
Other environmental advocates echoed that warning and urged senators to block the bill. Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, said that “renewable energy and climate advocates in the Senate must hold the line against the SPEED Act’s evisceration of our bedrock environmental and community protection law.”
