The Obama administration has implemented initiatives to help federal agencies accelerate the regulatory process used to review and approve road and bridge construction, transportation and renewable energy projects.The Office of Management and Budget and the White House Council on Environmental Quality collaborated to develop guidance for agencies to expand the scope and number of public-works projects that will be reported through an online portal, OMB Director Shaun Donovan and CEQ Managing Director Christy Goldfuss wrote in a joint blog post published Tuesday.
The guidance calls on reviewing agencies to post on the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard target and actual dates for applications, permit issuance, environmental impact statement release and final decisions.
Donovan and Goldfuss added the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and five other military and civilian organizations updated a government handbook, titled “Synchronizing Environmental Reviews for Transportation and Other Infrastructure Projects.”
The dashboard and handbook are designed to also help agencies ensure that infrastructure projects will not have a significant impact on the environment and communities, the blog post states.
