THE GREEN NEW DEAL WILL MEAN TRASHING ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS: The Green New Steal…err…Deal envisages a massive and rapid transformation of society akin to mobilization for the Second World War. An under-appreciated aspect of what that means is that laws that delay projects in the name of assessing environmental impact will have to be ripped up. My colleague Myron Ebell explains:
One aspect of covering the landscape with hundreds of thousands of square miles of windmills and solar panels is that to do so would require suspending federal, state, and local environmental statutes, permitting procedures, and land use plans. Forget about the Endangered Species Act’s habitat protections and prohibitions on killing endangered birds and bats. The Clean Water Act’s wetlands protections will have to be overlooked. Environmental impact statements that now take years to prepare, years to move through the permitting process, and more years to litigate, are out the window. Wind and solar projects will have to be permitted in days.
There’s a lot more to complain about when it comes to The Great New Steal, but the duplicitous nature of the green environmental movement is on full display here.