By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Army Corps of Engineers has identified over 600 energy and other infrastructure projects identified as national emergency priorities, enabling them to be fast-tracked through the environmental review process, according to new data posted on its website.
The Army Corps posted the list of projects – without sending a public notice – last week that were marked as eligible for emergency permitting under the federal Clean Water Act, meaning they can speed through an environmental review that would enable them to be built through wetlands.
President Donald Trump had ordered the Army Corps to issue permits enabling the filling of wetlands and dredging or building in waterways as part of the “National Energy Emergency” he declared on a day-one executive order.
The Army Corps was not immediately available for comment.
Among the 688 permit applications the Army Corps marked as eligible for “energy emergency” were many fossil-fuel related projects, such as pipelines. They included Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 oil pipeline under Lake Michigan, natural gas power plants, transmission lines, mining and other infrastructure projects.
Of the applications, the largest number – 141 – are in West Virginia, with 60 in Pennsylvania, 57 in Texas, 42 in Florida, 41 in Ohio, among many others in other states, according to the Environmental Integrity Project, which is tracking the permits.
The fast-tracking of these projects will trigger legal fights, with environmental groups warning they are flouting federal laws.
“This end-run around the normal environmental review process is not only harmful for our waters, but is illegal under the Corps’ own emergency permitting regulations,” said David Bookbinder, Director of Law and Policy at The EIP.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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