![DOT Masthead](masthead%20copy.jpg)
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
DOT 85-02
Contact: Brian Roehrkasse
Telephone: 202-366-4570
U.S. Department of Transportation
Implements Executive Order
Safeguarding Environment, Accelerating Decisions on Transportation Projects
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y.
Mineta today announced steps the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is
taking to implement President Bush’s executive order regarding environmental
stewardship and the streamlining of environmental review of important
transportation infrastructure projects. The executive order calls for a
Cabinet-level task force reporting to the President through the chairman of the
Council on Environmental Quality to ensure that environmentally sound projects
are not held up unnecessarily by inefficient review procedures.
“Too many transportation projects become mired for too long in the complex web
of clearances required by federal and state law. This initiative is intended to
make our transportation investments more efficient, helping to ease congestion
and reduce pollution,” Secretary Mineta said in letters to the governors,
Congressional committee leaders and stakeholders. “By working in close concert
with governors and transportation leaders, we hope to identify effective
procedures for routinely expediting consideration of environmentally sound
transportation projects nationwide. Commonsense streamlining and
responsible environmental stewardship motivate our effort in equal measure.”
While the nation’s transportation system is congested and strained, too many
projects that would ease congestion and reduce emissions are delayed by a
complex and often duplicative permitting process. In 2001 the median time to
process environmental documents for major highway projects was four and a half
years. Over the past 10 years, the median time to process environmental
documents for major transit projects was three years and ten months. The average
environmental review time for airport runways, including decision time, is more
than three years or about one-third of the 10-year planning time for a new
commercial service runway. The total time required for a major new highway or
airport to go from planning to opening averages 13 years for highways and 10
years for airports.
In the executive order, President Bush instructed the Cabinet to form a review
team, an interagency Transportation Infrastructure Streamlining Task Force, and
appointed Secretary Mineta to chair it. The task force will work to streamline
environmental reviews of specific, high-impact transportation construction
projects – airport, highway, transit and intermodal.
Secretary Mineta said that all activities flowing from the order will still be
required to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and all other
environmental statutes, and that the President’s order today goes beyond just
compliance. The executive order directs the Department of Transportation to
continue and expand environmental stewardship for transportation projects.
The executive order builds upon ongoing efforts by the USDOT, other federal
agencies and their transportation partners to streamline the decision making
process in response to the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st
Century (TEA-21) and the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for
the 21st Century (AIR 21).
Secretary Mineta said that the U.S. Department of Transportation will develop a
list of specific streamlining projects “to tackle immediately.” In his
letters, Secretary Mineta asked for project nominations from governors, local
authorities such as airport directors and metropolitan planning organizations,
and other transportation leaders.
“Working with state and federal agencies, we expect to help cut through red
tape and promote effective strategies for taking time out of the decision making
process,” Secretary Mineta said.
Based on its experience in accelerating review of the initial list of high
priority projects, the Department in the future will develop a series of “best
practices” for streamlining the decision making process on all transportation
infrastructure projects and for enhancing environmental stewardship.
Concurrent with the executive order, the transportation planning and
environmental rulemakings, proposed by the Federal Highway and Transit
Administrations in May 2000, are being withdrawn. A notice will be published in
the Federal Register. A supplemental rulemaking dealing specifically with
local consultation was issued in June 2002.
The task force members in addition to Secretary Mineta include the U.S.
Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, the Interior and Defense as well as the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Chair of the Advisory
Council on Historic Preservation and the Chair of the Council on Environmental
Quality.
The executive order, Environmental Stewardship and Transportation
Infrastructure Project Reviews, is on the Internet at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/.
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Briefing Room