Thursday, October 31, 2002
DOT 100-02
Contact:
Bill
Outlaw
Telephone: 202-366-0660
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mineta Announces List of Infrastructure Construction Projects For Accelerated Environmental Review
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta today announced an initial list
of seven transportation construction projects around the country that will
receive accelerated environmental review under President Bush’s executive
order last month on environmental stewardship.
The executive order called for a Cabinet-level task force to ensure that
projects are not unnecessarily held up by inefficient review procedures.
“President Bush asked his cabinet to help states cut through federal bureaucratic inertia to help them complete sound transportation projects more quickly and at less cost,” said Secretary Mineta. “This important initiative will help us do just that.”
Secretary Mineta added, “We will not, however, sacrifice environmental standards in this effort.”
Today’s announcement represents the first in an ongoing
series of important transportation infrastructure projects chosen for
accelerated environmental review. These
projects illustrate for potential state and local applicants the kind of
projects that would benefit from this initiative. The Department will build on this initial list of projects by
reviewing the numerous nominations it is receiving from governors and local
officials, and announcing on a regular basis those projects selected by the
President’s task force on environmental stewardship.
The projects on the Department’s initial list included
one airport and six surface transportation projects.
They include the Philadelphia International Airport runway construction;
Community and Environmental Transportation Acceptability Process in Riverside
County, CA; Interstate 93 in New Hampshire; Chittenden Circumferential Highway
in Vermont; Louisville-Southern Indiana
Ohio River Bridges project; St. Croix River Crossing at Stillwater, MN;
and Interstate 69 in Texas.
The President’s task force will begin the process of soliciting, receiving and evaluating transportation projects nominated for expedited environmental review by governors from around the country, with input from metropolitan planning organizations, airport authorities and other local transportation leaders, and will announce selected projects on an ongoing basis. Projects on the priority list would be required to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and all other environmental statutes.
Earlier this month, the Department invited state and local officials to recommend projects for a “Project Review Register.” Nominations are due Nov. 12. The register serves as a source from which new projects will be added to its priority project list. The priority project list will be a rolling list, with new projects added and others dropped as the task force completes its work on them.
Tomorrow, Nov. 1, 2002, the
department will conduct a workshop for key national transportation and
environmental organizations at which it will exchange ideas for additional
criteria to be used in selecting projects.
Workshop participants will also discuss best practices in environmental
stewardship and recommendations received for project selection criteria.
The cabinet level task force,
formed as a result of the President’s executive order of Sept. 18 and chaired
by Secretary Mineta, will review projects on the project priority list and work
to expedite environmental reviews.
In addition to Secretary Mineta, task force members 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.
Additional information about implementation of the President’s executive order, Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Project Reviews, is on the Internet at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/stewardshipeo.
###