US initiatives to speed up infrastructure

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have issued a guidance memorandum to Federal agencies that established a set of metrics for tracking the permitting and environmental review of infrastructure projects including ports and waterways, renewable energy generation, water management and roads and surface transportation.

This memo will require that that agencies post project schedules – including all needed Federal permits and reviews – as well as progress made towards them.

Neil Davidson, senior analyst at Drewry Consultants, said to GreenPort: “Every port project has numerous hurdles to overcome before it becomes a reality, be they regulatory, environmental, political, engineering, financial or commercial ones.”

“So this initiative may (should) be positive, but there are many other factors in the mix. In the US of course, environmental considerations are particularly evident,” he added.

The Department of Transportation, Army Corps of Engineers, US Coast Guard and four other agencies have also released an update for the handbook, Synchronising Environmental Reviews for Transportation and Other Infrastructure Projects.

It will provide federal agencies, project sponsors and consultants with a ‘how-to’ guide on ways to improve the key permits and reviews required for these projects.

In addition, the Dashboard, first created in 2012 to highlight a set of nationally significant projects, has been updated to make it easier to find information about major infrastructure projects as they progress through the federal environmental permitting and review process.