"President Trump is trying to curtail environmental reviews, but he'll need to win reelection first.

The administration is set to unveil regulatory changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, the bedrock environmental law that requires federal agencies to take a "hard look" at the potential impact of infrastructure projects before approving them. The new regulations would exclude climate change from those analyses while shortening reviews and allowing more projects to proceed without them.

Several hurdles remain before the proposed rules go into effect, so their implementation could fall to whoever is inaugurated as president next January.

That means NEPA's rules hinge on an election like never before in its 50-year history."

Adam Aton reports for ClimateWire January 8, 2020. [2]