‘It Took 36 Years To Permit’: Dan Sullivan Slams Delays On Critical Infrastructure Projects

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At a Senate Environment Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) discussed delays on infrastructure permits under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:04Senator Sullivan.

00:05Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:06And I want to welcome the witnesses.

00:08And you're going to see a theme, I think, here on this issue of permitting reform.

00:14You know, this committee has a long, I think, real positive history of producing significant

00:21bipartisan infrastructure, and I'm really hopeful that we can, under the chairman and

00:27ranking members' leadership, do that again with this highway bill.

00:31But the key has got to be permitting reform.

00:33I think even my friends on the other side of the aisle, who, let's face it, oftentimes

00:37resist it because you've got far-left radical environmental groups who love the fact that

00:43NEPA takes 10 years because you can't build anything then.

00:47They do.

00:48That's a fact.

00:49I see it in my state all the time.

00:52But Governor, let me start with you.

00:54You know, my state, Alaska is resource-rich, infrastructure-poor.

01:00We have less road miles in Connecticut, and we're almost 120 times bigger than Connecticut,

01:07and a lot more natural resources in Connecticut.

01:10So how do we ensure that a highway bill for the whole country takes into account places like

01:20my state or your state that have huge resource potential, but not nearly the number of roads

01:28that we need that the rest of the East Coast has?

01:32Eighty-two percent of the communities in Alaska are not even connected by a road.

01:37So how do we make progress in that regard?

01:42I think the first and most important answer is an equitable formula that gives states maximum

01:49flexibility on how to spend their money.

01:51Secondly, I think there's two ways infrastructure gets beat up.

01:55How heavy is it, or how much is it driven on?

01:58Those are the two ways infrastructure gets beaten up.

02:01You might not have as many miles driven or as many vehicles traveling on any of those roads,

02:05but the things you're doing in Alaska are pretty heavy.

02:08Yeah.

02:08And they're pretty important.

02:10And so recognizing that you factor those things in, but eventually, I think, I mean,

02:14I think the answer to the simple portion, the implementation is really hard, right?

02:19But the simple portion is making sure you have an equitable Florida formula that gives states

02:23the maximum amount of flexibility and certainty.

02:26Great.

02:27Mr. Ramirez, let me go to permitting reform.

02:30It's such an important issue.

02:32The Supreme Court and its Seven County Infrastructure Coalition versus Eagle County was a great course

02:40correction on NEPA saying, look, this is a procedural, not a substantive law.

02:48You don't need 10,000 pages in 10 years.

02:52We had a gold mine in Alaska.

02:55The Kensington mine is now employing about 450 people in southeast Alaska.

03:02That's producing gold for America.

03:05Took 20 years to permit.

03:07We had a big infrastructure development project on the Kenai Peninsula.

03:14It was a road.

03:15It took 36 years to permit.

03:17I think it was the world record on NEPA, slow, slowness.

03:21So I think even my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have always blocked permitting

03:26reform, that's the dark, deep secret here.

03:29You have my Democrat colleagues, hey, we want permitting reform.

03:32We want permitting reform.

03:33We want to go to them with common sense approaches, and they don't do it because their far left

03:38groups tell them not to.

03:40But I think even my Democrat colleagues now want to see this because they see everything.

03:45Renewables, any project is blocked by this real bad implementation.

03:51NEPA had a good goal at the beginning, but it's been totally abused and hijacked by groups

03:57that don't want to build, certainly don't want to build in my state.

04:00So what are the real key elements, by the way, we've got some NEPA reform in the budget

04:05reconciliation bill.

04:06I really want to thank the chairman for staying on that.

04:09It's pretty good, actually.

04:11But what would you say are the key elements that I hope my Democrat colleagues can get

04:16behind on NEPA reform that everybody in the country wants?

04:20Every Democrat governor, every Democrat mayor.

04:23The mayor, I'm sure the mayor here wants it.

04:26I mean, it's nuts that it takes 10 years on average to permit a bridge.

04:31No wonder why China's kicking our butt on so many of these things.

04:34So what would you think are the key elements of NEPA permitting reform that we need for

04:41this bill?

04:43Thank you, Senator.

04:44I'd offer two principles that I think would solve the majority of the problems.

04:47One is going in up front to have a regulatory process that has enforceable deadlines that

04:53can't go on forever.

04:54Both at the agency level and at the litigation court level.

04:58That would be the second part.

04:59So I think going in and having deadlines for the regulatory agencies and then having an expedited

05:03judicial review process so it can't be tied up in litigation forever.

05:07If you apply those two principles across our regulatory system, I think we could see a real change.

05:12Very common sense.

05:13I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle embrace those because they're common

05:17sense.

05:18The whole darn country wants them and let's not let some far left groups who always hate

05:23NEPA reform drive the agenda for America.

05:26Nobody wants 10 years to permit a bridge, 20 years to permit a gold mine.

05:31And unfortunately, that's what NEPA has done to our country.

05:34Thank you, Madam Chair.

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