HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen joined a coalition of 24 states in opposition to a new permitting rule proposed by the Biden administration illegally mandating social, environmental, and race-based regulations for infrastructure projects.
In a letter sent today to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the attorneys general raise concerns with the new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) proposed rule and ask the council to withdraw it. If the rule is allowed to go into effect, Americans will pay more for energy; face delays for projects such as new housing, power plants, roads, and bridges; and suffer from project cancelations and delays.
“CEQ’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,” Knudsen and the other attorneys general said in the letter. “Overall, the Proposed Rule increases uncertainty and imposes costs with little benefit. It exceeds CEQ’s authority and does so in a way that is harmful to broad and beneficial development.”
Historically, NEPA has been a procedural statute that requires agencies to consider significant environmental impacts before they act and offer those views to the public. However, the new rule would transform it into a substantive statute, imposing regulatory approval on entities for important projects as a way for the Biden administration to accelerate an “energy transition” away from traditional sources of energy.
The illegal double standard will favor projects that align with the Biden administration’s radical climate change agenda, while projects that use traditional energy sources will face stricter regulations.
“As a procedural statute, courts have never interpreted NEPA to require agencies to prioritize environmental concerns over other priorities. The Proposed Rule does just that,” the attorneys general wrote.
Additionally, the proposed rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act and federal law requiring that significant legislation go through Congress, rather than unelected bureaucrats.
Attorney General Knudsen joined Iowa, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming in signing the letter.
Click here to read the letter.
