SLC Times

Senator Mike Lee from Utah has reintroduced the UNSHACKLE Act, a legislative proposal aimed at reforming the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The act seeks to address what Senator Lee describes as NEPA's role in making infrastructure and maintenance projects prohibitively expensive due to special interest groups.

"Environmental planning is essential to sustainable growth, but unfortunately NEPA has become a weapon used by special interests to make much-needed infrastructure and maintenance projects throughout our country prohibitively expensive," stated Sen. Lee. "The UNSHACKLE Act will reform the NEPA process so that federal agencies, state, and local governments are better empowered to carry out NEPA’s original goal, while also making our nation’s infrastructure and maintenance project affordable again."

Daren Bakst from the Competitive Enterprise Institute commented on the proposed legislation: "Federal permitting requirements create unnecessary costs and delays for critical projects, including those for energy and water. A major cause of these regulatory obstacles is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). There have been plenty of weak NEPA reform efforts. But that definitely can’t be said for the UNSHACKLE Act. It’s a strong bill that would meaningfully reform NEPA." He added that Senator Lee should be commended for his leadership on this bill.

Philip Rossetti from the R Street Institute expressed support for the focus on reducing permitting delays: "Our research at the R Street Institute consistently shows that permitting delays are a major impediment to energy and infrastructure development in the United States. It is good to see Sen. Mike Lee homing in on key reforms that would reduce permitting delays at the federal level."

The UNSHACKLE Act consolidates five previous bills introduced by Senator Lee concerning agency processes, state expansion, legal changes, and data reporting into one comprehensive piece of legislation. The updated version includes provisions requiring agencies to reimburse application fees if they fail to meet specified timelines.

Each component of the UNSHACKLE Act addresses different aspects of NEPA reform:

- The NEPA Agency Process Accountability Act mandates streamlined procedures for environmental assessments.

- The NEPA Accountability and Enforcement Act sets deadlines for completing environmental reviews.

- The NEPA State Assignment Expansion Act allows delegation of review authority to states.

- The NEPA Legal Reform Act outlines judicial review requirements.

- The NEPA Data Transparency Act demands reporting on environmental processing times and costs.

For further details on each section or access to full bill text, references are available online.