EPA/INFRASTRUCTURE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan would trigger one of the most significant regulation rollbacks in decades, benefiting not just roads and bridges, but businesses ranging from coal mines to homebuilders to factories… The proposed revisions to some of the nation’s bedrock environmental regulations are drawing heavy criticism from congressional Democrats — including in the Senate, where Republicans would need at least nine extra votes to enact Trump’s plan. Environmental groups say the ambition of the plan’s deregulation push contrasts with the relatively meager amount of federal money the White House is proposing to contribute toward the $1.5 trillion total…
But Democrats say the nation’s real infrastructure problem is money — and the Trump proposal calls for just $200 billion in federal investments over the next decade for needs including roads, bridges, airports, water plants, veterans’ hospitals and rural broadband service. And they questioned whether Trump’s aim is really just to make regulatory reviews more efficient…
Trump’s infrastructure proposal would go much further, setting strict deadlines for reviews and curtailing EPA’s say over projects… The blueprint would remove EPA’s authority to oversee the Army Corps of Engineers’ determinations about which streams and wetlands are subject to Clean Water Act protections. And it would take away the EPA’s ability to veto dredge-and-fill permits that it decides would cause undue harm to the environment.
The plan also calls for eliminating a section of the Clean Air Act that requires EPA to review, comment on and rate other agencies’ environmental impact statements.”
-Annie Snider and Anthony Adragna, “Trump’s latest strike against regulations: His infrastructure plan,” Politico, Feb. 16, 2018 05:01am