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House Report Calls for Changes to Environmental Law

 

August 01, 2006 — By Matthew Daly, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Congress should change federal law to make it harder to bring

lawsuits that can delay new roads, logging or other projects for years, a House

task force said Monday.

 

The task force recommended at least 20 changes to a landmark environmental law,

but did not present draft legislation, and GOP leaders say they do not expect to

offer a bill this year.

 

Republican leaders have been looking for ways to streamline the 36-year-old

National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which serves as the basis for

federal management of public lands.

 

The GOP-dominated task force issued its final report Monday after studying the

issue for more than a year.

 

The panel's chairwoman, Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., said it was premature to

offer a bill, adding that she did not want the effort to get caught up in

election-year politics.

 

" I want to work to increase awareness and build coalitions that recognize

there's room for improvements, " McMorris said.

 

The 23-page report, prepared by Republican staff of the House Resources

Committee, recites a familiar litany of complaints, mostly involving delays

associated with NEPA. The report notes that speakers at a series of public

hearings said that lawsuits, or even threatened lawsuits, often add years and

millions of dollars to a new road, housing development or logging project.

 

One way to prevent delays is to narrow the definition of what constitutes a

major federal action, which under the law requires lengthy study and public

comment before moving forward, the report said. All too often, projects that are

not major are treated as if they were, it said.

 

" One of our major findings was that so often NEPA is used as a means to take

something to court, " McMorris said, calling lawsuits an unintended consequence

of the landmark law, signed in 1970 by President Nixon.

 

" It's my goal to move NEPA from being such a confrontational law to one where

there's more collaboration, " McMorris said.

 

Jim Zoia, Democratic staff director of the Resources panel, called the report

virtually meaningless. Legislation creating the task force expired months ago,

so the report has no official standing, he said.

 

The report was prepared without input from Democrats, Zoia said, questioning the

good faith of task force leaders. The GOP-led Resources panel has repeatedly

approved legislation " waiving NEPA, modifying NEPA, gutting NEPA, " he said. " So

it's passing strange to make recommendations on what the committee may want to

consider to do with NEPA, when one bill after another is reported out that (in

effect) repealed NEPA. "

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

If George Bush said that the Earth was flat, the headline would read, " Views

Differ on Shape of the Earth "