Highway environmental shortcuts unnecessary and destructive, Congress told

(10/08/2002) - WASHINGTON – A bill to short-circuit environmental and citizen reviews of highway projects would be "bad transportation policy and awful environmental policy," according to testimony by Defenders of Wildlife Vice President William J. Snape, III before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit today. According to Snape, the bill would accomplish little or nothing in speeding up construction of highway projects, but is instead a part of a broader effort to undermine the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other key environmental protections.

The subcommittee heard testimony from Snape and others on H.R. 5455, Rep. Don Young’s (R-Alaska) bill to set extremely strict deadlines on environmental reviews.

"Indeed, the problems with this bill are so numerous and severe that one can only conclude that weakening environmental legal protections – particularly under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – is one of the major aims of the proposed legislation. Building as many roads, as quickly as possible at whatever the cost, appears to be one of the driving forces behind HR 5455," Snape testified.

According to the Federal Highway Administration in two reports in 2000, the most common reasons for delay of highway construction projects was lack of funding or low priority (32 percent), local controversy (16 percent), inherent complexity of the project (13 percent), or changing or expanding the scope of the project (8 percent). Another study commissioned by the American Association of Surface Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) found that 92 percent of environmental documents processed by state departments of transportation are actually Categorical Exclusions, and only two percent are full environmental impact statements.

Snape noted that highway construction is not the only vehicle that opponents have used to attack environmental rules. He described recent attempts to boost logging in the wake of wildlfires, increase drilling for oil, and expedite airport construction as recent lines of attack against NEPA.

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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading non-profit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 430,000 members and supporters - 100,000 of whom are in California - Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered species issues. To stay current on hot topics in wildlife conservation, please visit www.defenders.org.

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