The Dog Ate My Environmental Impact Study

So I’m reading about a bill, the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act, that puts a time limit of a year on FERC to approve a proposal for a gas pipeline.

And I’m reading the last bit of the quote below thinking heck, maybe this is a step in a logical direction. So I expected if all those various required environmental impact studies mentioned in the first bit quoted below are NOT completed within that one year window, then the project proposal will logically be REJECTED.

Imagine my mock-astonishment when instead I read the word ACCEPTED. What was I thinking! These are Republicans, who increasingly seem to have no ideological compass at all other than soak the rich and screw the planet and pat each other on the back.

Talk about your fox guarding your industry hen house. Er, make that THEIR hen house. Used to be everybodys. Of, by and for. Remember how that was supposed to work?

So to get the green light, all the so-called impact studies just need to be conveniently delayed, and bingo! Get a free pass!

Congress Considers Bill to Fast Track Gas Pipeline Projects, and it Could Affect West Virginians | West Virginia Public Broadcasting

[su_quote]“The commission will look at all potential aspects of the environmental impact of a project, and that includes cultural resources, wetlands, endangered species, impacts on waterways, geology, agricultural land, etc,” Allen said. The House of Representatives recently passed a resolution, which, if it became a law, would direct FERC to shorten the length of time it reviews all pipeline projects to one year. If FERC fails to review a given project within that time, the resolution states, the project should automatically be approved.[/su_quote]

Welcome to Bizarro World.