Chip Roy: “my amendment shores up and strengthens the definition of what triggers an environmental impact statement. I offer this…”

“my amendment shores up and strengthens the definition of what triggers an environmental impact statement. I offer this amendment to further improve the bill and prevent agencies from keeping projects in permitting limbo. Again, the driving force here is to try to free up the American people and free up free enterprise to be able to produce adequate and abundant energy for the American people, to be able to produce and create and develop projects that create and provide jobs and to be able to make sure the American people can prosper without being hamstrung by the bureaucracy of a Federal Government that has been limiting our ability to keep up and produce. While the base text of the bill makes a great effort to reduce the length of NEPA review by placing caps on all parts of the process, further defining what constitutes a significant effect that triggers an environmental impact statement will make the bill stronger. Performing an environmental impact statement is the lengthiest and most expensive part of the permitting process. The Government Accountability Office estimates the lengthy EIS process costs between $250,000 and $2 million every time there is a project. My amendment inserts commonsense language that requires at least one significant effect be triggered before an agency subjects a project to the lengthy EIS process.”