Donald Trump is telling companies that invest $1 billion or more in the U.S. they will get fast-tracked approvals of regulations – in a signal of a push to clear away obstacles in the permitting process.
Trump posted the policy in a statement on his Truth Social platform, without explaining how he would get around layers of environmental regulations established in law or the U.S. Code. Those regs often come after a lengthy review process and regularly prompt industry court fights that can run for years.
‘Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,’ Trump wrote Tuesday. ‘GET READY TO ROCK!!!’ he added.
It is part of a plan to goose economic growth, on a day President Biden touted his own economic agenda.
It came just a day after the outgoing Biden Administration announced a sweeping new final rule to ban all uses of the chemical TCE and all consumer uses and commercial uses of PCE
‘TCE is an extremely toxic chemical known to cause liver cancer, kidney cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. TCE also causes damage to the central nervous system, liver, kidneys, immune system, reproductive organs, and fetal heart defects,’ according to an EPA statement.
Trump’s transition has been working on a package meant to speed permitting of liquefied natural gas projects and to boost drilling on federal lands and off the coastal U.S., sources told Reuters. It would come within days of Trump taking the oath of office.
Trump has plans to repeal many environmental regulations pushed through by President Joe Biden.
He has regularly mocked his climate change agenda, blasted big subsidies for electric cars, and repeatedly called to ‘drill, baby, drill.’
He even used the call to harness U.S. energy when pressed on his comment that members of the House January 6 Committee should ‘go to jail.’
‘I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill,’ Trump said when pressed.
Biden economic advisor Jared Bernstein addressed the permit post at Tuesday’s White House briefing.
‘We’ve had tremendous foreign direct investment, and yes, we’ve definitely tried to make – clean the brush out – to help diminish the burden for permitting and things like that and there’s more to do in that space,’ Bernstein said, after saying he would hesitate to respond to a Trump tweet.
‘And I think there are members of Congress – that is I believe a bipartisan issue that we could be working on. So if the Trump team is serious about trying to clear some of that brush, sure but one thing I hear too often from him and them is without regard for any impact of some of the guardrails that are there for a reason.’
