Agencies sign agreement to speed permitting

At least a dozen federal agencies today signed an agreement to streamline the environmental permitting process, a White House official confirmed to E&E News.

The memorandum of understanding implements President Trump's Aug. 15, 2017, executive order, which aims to cut permitting time for big infrastructure projects to two years.

Signatories of the agreement, first reported by Bloomberg, will include the Energy, Interior, Transportation and Agriculture departments as well as U.S. EPA, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers. Agency chiefs signed the deal at the end of today's Cabinet meeting.

The memo mirrors the permitting agenda outlined in Trump's infrastructure plan, released in February, which has fallen flat on Capitol Hill.

Read more about it here: https://bit.ly/2Exee3P