Trump Rewrite Narrows Historic Protections for Faster Energy Approvals

Environmental attorney Rafe Petersen was cited in an E&E News article about proposed changes to the federal historic preservation process aimed at accelerating project approvals. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires agencies to contact state-appointed or Tribe-appointed historic preservation officers to identify whether historic properties are present on land proposed for a project and determine the scope of historic preservation reviews. Under the proposed amendments, approved by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and sent to the White House for consideration, agencies themselves could determine what constitutes a historic site and produce their own reports about environmental and Tribal impacts, as well as eschew soliciting public comments. Rafe told E&E News the rewritten rules "would substantially streamline the process" for project development and execution – including for renewable energy initiatives and oil and gas pipelines – by creating a "faster process with less steps," though critics say it would unfairly limit input from Native American Tribes and narrow federal protections for important historic locations.

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