Trump signs order to speed infrastructure construction

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday he has signed a new executive order intended to make more efficient the federal permitting process for construction of transportation, water and other infrastructure projects without harming the environment.

The Obama order required that such projects built with federal aid take rising sea levels into account.

The Obama order was especially unwieldy because it didn’t standardize across the government how sea level rise was to be taken into account, which left each federal agency to come up with its own standards, said Jimmy Christianson, an attorney with the Associated General Contractors.

A recent draft of an upcoming report from scientists representing 13 federal agencies say sea levels along U.S. coastlines could rise by more than 1 foot on average by 2050, potentially more in the Northeast and western Gulf of Mexico.

“What this order will do is ensure that we will waste more taxpayer money because federal agencies will no longer have to consider long-term flood risks to federally funded infrastructure projects,” said Jessica Grannis, who manages the adaptation program at the Georgetown Climate Center.

[...] a Treasury Department report released earlier this year found that “a lack of public funding is by far the most common factor hindering completion” of major transportation and water infrastructure projects.