The Department of Energy has proposed lifting requirements for environmental reviews of proposed natural gas import and export projects. The reviews are required under the National Environmental Policy Act, a keystone environmental protection law. The agency says the change is reasonable because the Energy Department has “no authority to prevent” any environmental impacts that NEPA reviews would reveal; and that rolling back the requirement “will improve the efficiency of the DOE decision-making process by saving time and money in the NEPA review process and eliminating unnecessary environmental documentation.” Status: Proposed rule change published May 1, 2020. Public comment period ends June 1, 2020.
