The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the time it takes to permit an infrastructure project in these United States and what might be done about it. The average time it takes for National Environmental Policy Act review, according to the Journal, is four and one half years. That doesn't include the time necessary to resolve the almost inevitable NIMBY court challenges most infrastructure projects face.   

If one believes the scientists about the Greenhouse Gas reductions necessary to mitigate our imminent climate crisis, we need to be moving much faster to electrify our country. Congress and the President have authorized the spending of billions and billions of Federal dollars to that end. But that money can't be spent in the way Congress and the President have agreed it should be spent, in the time in which Congress and the President say it must be spent, if Congress and the President don't also do something to streamline the Federal and State permitting of infrastructure projects and the court challenges those projects typically face.

No one quoted in the Journal article is suggesting that we ignore the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects in order to save our environment. But it takes longer to get infrastructure projects completed here than it does in the rest of the world, including in other countries with environmental regulations as protective as ours, and there is no way that's a good thing.

It is said that the first step in dealing with a problem is to recognize that you have one. Kudos to the President and many Members of Congress for checking that box. But no amount of "guidance" is going to get us where we need to get.   Legislation is essential. Hopefully we'll see it before it is too late.

John Podesta, a top Biden climate adviser who has worked in several Democratic administrations, said he was surprised to discover when he returned to the White House last year that a transmission project that came across his desk during the Obama administration still hadn’t been approved. “That’s unacceptable,” he said at a recent event.

Podesta is spearheading the administration’s efforts to overhaul permitting rules. New guidance issued by the White House directs agencies to complete permitting decisions and environmental reviews for transmissions projects within two years and allows companies to petition the president directly if the government misses permitting deadlines.