Getting Harder To Unleash "Energy Dominance" As Federal Workers Who Permit Development Head For The Exits

[hatrack]

Womp Fucking Womp.

President Donald Trump’s gutting of federal agencies could undermine his pro-fossil-fuel agenda as permit writers and energy experts head for the exit in droves, current and former government employees say. Agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department now have fewer people to review permit applications and roll back regulations seen as burdensome to the energy industry. While the Trump administration says it can accelerate project approvals by using artificial intelligence and emergency procedures, the loss of federal experts could slow down environmental reviews required for starting projects.

“We just sent an enormous amount of brain power packing through the deferred resignation program and natural retirements,” Steve Tryon, who directs Interior’s Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, said during a webinar last week. “[It] struck our most senior levels … [and] our newest employees as well.” Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, for example, has lost considerable subject matter expertise, Tryon said. The service is charged with consulting with other agencies to ensure compliance with the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws.

In addition, the Army Corps’ three senior-most environmental experts each retired in April or May, creating a leadership vacuum at the agency charged with evaluating projects’ effects on wetlands and waterways. Permitting at the corps is almost certain to slow down if more staffers depart, said John Paul Woodley Jr., a wetlands consultant who oversaw the agency during the George W. Bush administration. “If it doesn’t, somebody should give them a medal,” Woodley said.

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But those who’ve left the Army Corps since late April include Jennifer Moyer, the former chief of the regulatory division, which oversees Clean Water Act regulations, environmental permits and reviews. David Olson, the agency’s longtime expert on a streamlined permitting program, also retired last month. And Margaret Gaffney-Smith, the former deputy chief of operations and second-in-command for the regulatory division, retired at the end of May. “That was literally the Army Corps’ regulatory branch trifecta,” said Marla Stelk, executive director of the National Association of Wetland Managers, which works with state wetland scientists. “Those were the three people that made things happen.”

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https://www.eenews.net/articles/federal-exodus-imperils-trumps-permitting-goals/