This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, January 28th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

When the Trump administration announced a rollback of regulatory review for certain large government

constructed infrastructure projects.

The reaction was swift and negative.

It's not exactly clear why.

Peter Van Doren edits regulation magazine. He comments on the rollback of these

reviews and what they actually mean for environmental quality.

Detail for me the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Act states the following that the EPA shall identify and analyze the environmental impact

of quote, major federal actions

significantly affecting the quality of the human environment end quote.

That's a big broad purview there.

It is.

So, but notice it doesn't say analyze and then decide

whether to allow this infrastructure or action to be built or to occur.

It just says analyze and that's really important.

It's an unlimited license to write papers.

To the extent that these papers are written, this is before projects are undertaken?

Correct. Okay, so what So what it slow them down. So what's the is

that the only practical impact then of the fact that these analyses are

conducted with regard to these large government actions?

...