Svend Brandt-Erichsen Comments on U.S. Department of Interior’s Permits Plan

Svend Brandt-Erichsen was quoted in the Law360 article “Interior’s Energy Permits Plan Has Legal And Practical Risks” (subscription required). The article provides an overview of the DOI’s plan to streamline environmental reviews and speed up approvals for energy projects and outlines potential challenges in implementing an expedited process. The plan’s focal point is an alternative compliance process for developers under NEPA, where environment assessments would be done in 14 days and environmental impact statements in 28 days. Currently, these actions take a year/up to two years, respectively.

Commenting on the proposed plan, Svend said, “Interior’s alternative NEPA compliance process is a significant departure from existing practice, which in itself will invite legal challenges.” He also added, “It will be difficult for Interior agencies to produce quality NEPA documents on this schedule, particularly in light of anticipated staff reductions.”

Additionally, Law360 reports even if the DOI’s alternative NEPA process survives a facial legal challenge, it presents practical challenges for the agency and project developers in putting together sufficient environmental reviews within the process’s compressed timeframes. The DOI and its agencies currently require developers to complete all baseline environmental data and finalize resource reports prior to publishing a notice of intent to conduct a NEPA review in order to meet a two-year schedule.

Offering his thoughts, Svend added, “Under this accelerated schedule, details of the planned project, and of any project alternatives, would have to be nailed down and evaluation of the project would have to be essentially complete before the agency could start drafting the NEPA document...The agency is unlikely to be able to draft NEPA documents in two to four weeks unless that information is already available.”