The Bloomberg Editorial Board strikes a bipartisan tone in its criticism of red tape writing “Joe Biden’s ambitious green-energy agenda won’t go anywhere without permitting reform.”
Building anything in the US requires navigating a rainforest of red tape. A primary impediment is the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federally funded projects to undergo a laborious environmental-review process. Mandated impact studies can run for hundreds of pages, cost millions of dollars and take years to complete. Faced with such costly busywork, many projects don’t get off the ground at all. Others endure seemingly endless legal challenges.