API Welcomes Modernized NEPA Regulations that Strengthen U.S. Environmental Progress and Support Infrastructure Development

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2020 – API released the following statement ahead of the administration’s event this afternoon to finalize improvements to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations. The changes will reduce the red tape slowing critical infrastructure projects and job creation across the country while strengthening environmental progress.

“NEPA modernization will help America streamline permitting to move job-creating infrastructure projects off the drawing board and into development,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said. “Today’s action is essential to U.S. energy leadership and environmental progress, providing more certainty to jumpstart not only the modernized pipeline infrastructure we need to deliver cleaner fuels but highways, bridges and renewable energy. These reforms will help accelerate the nation’s economic recovery and advance energy infrastructure while continuing necessary environmental reviews.”

A recent report by the National Petroleum Council concluded that “overlapping and duplicative regulatory requirements, inconsistencies across multiple federal and state agencies, and unnecessarily lengthy administrative procedures have created a complex and unpredictable permitting process. While there have been bipartisan actions by Congress and the Executive Branch to expedite the permitting process, more improvements are necessary.”

Potential investments in energy-related projects alone have been estimated at more than $1 trillion over the next 15 years. Today’s NEPA modifications support the efficient permitting and construction of this critical infrastructure, including lower-carbon energy options like natural gas and renewables, as well as future clean-energy innovations.

API represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Our more than 600 members produce, process, and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports more than ten million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization. In our first 100 years, API has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.