A Few Steps Forward on Infrastructure
Last week, the Trump administration announced new regulations to streamline infrastructure permitting. Citing Common Good’s report, "Two Years, Not Ten Years," the new regulations put presumptive limits on size (300 pages) and time (two years) of environmental reviews.
While we disagree with two aspects of the regulations (for example, not considering cumulative impacts of large projects), we believe the new regulations will open the door to long-overdue projects. These projects should create a greener footprint, enhance America’s competitiveness, and provide a million, mainly outdoor, jobs.
The new regulations do not alter underlying environmental laws. Reading news reports, however, we are told the changes give polluters "carte blanche to do what they want." Trump himself feeds the polarized rhetoric by announcing this was "historic deregulation."
Democracies can be hijacked by passionate ideologues and extremists. What's rare in public debate today are voices aimed at fixing problems—whether to rebuild decrepit infrastructure or to realign police priorities and oversight. Instead, political leaders are in nonstop-attack mode, amplified by social media and, now, mainstream media as well.
Our Campaign for Common Good is aimed at providing a vision for making government work better, and a home for Americans seeking leadership with moral authority. Here are short clips from Mitch Daniels and Prof. Ron Tyler from last week's forum on public accountability. The full recording and individual panelist presentations are available here.
Next week’s forum is on purging red tape in schools. Here is our school policy plank.
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Read our full statement on the new infrastructure permitting regulations here.
We have rebranded our campaign as the Campaign for Common Good to avoid confusion with another group.