The historic climate case Held v Montana found environmental reviews conducted under the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) must consider the impacts of state actions on greenhouse gas emissions and the global climate. In response, the Department of Environmental Quality issued a call for public input about reforming MEPA.
Reform MEPA For A Better Climate
Reform MEPA For A Better Climate
Instead of stirring controversy, reforming MEPA could be a rare opportunity to forge bipartisan consensus around reforms that modernize the law for the 21st century, increase predictability for business and benefit the global climate.
Instead of stirring controversy, reforming MEPA could be a rare opportunity to forge bipartisan consensus around reforms that modernize the law for the 21st century, increase predictability for business and benefit the global climate.
With these goals in mind, my organization Frontier Institute recently outlined four principles to guide MEPA reform:
1. Think Long-Term
With a new mandate from the courts to focus on the global climate, MEPA reformers should empower state agencies to streamline and simplify environmental reviews for projects which have clearly beneficial long-run impacts to the global climate that outweigh relatively minor local impacts in the short-run.
An easy example of this would be streamlining environmental reviews for safe, emission-free energy projects like wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, hydroelectric etc.
Reformers could also streamline reviews for reliable energy projects that aid the rapid transition to clean energy. For instance, reliable natural gas projects are part of Northwestern Energy’s strategy to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, balancing the intermittency of new wind and solar sources in their generation portfolio during times of peak demand.
Strengthening the grid is necessary to reduce emissions-intensive activities and enable electrification in the long run. MEPA reforms could streamline and simplify reviews for new transmission lines and projects that harden local grids (burying wires etc).
Mining for Rare Earth Elements (REEs) also deserves attention. REEs are a critical component of hundreds of high-tech products, including wind turbines and electric vehicles. The Berkley Pit and other locations in Montana have been identified as possible high quality sources of REEs. Easing MEPA red tape for REE projects will promote a long-term, environmentally friendly domestic supply chain and reduce the world’s reliance on China’s toxic mining practices.
2. Bring MEPA into the 21st Century
MEPA’s model rules were adopted in 1988 and have not been updated since. In addition to removing outdated language, reformers should create specific, objective criteria that limits agency discretion and reduces uncertainty about the process.
State agencies are currently given an enormous amount of discretion to determine the level and depth of environmental analysis required. While agency discretion is helpful in some cases, it also creates uncertainty for business and increases the likelihood of costly litigation.
For example, the two most commonly litigated MEPA issues are (1) Should the state agency have conducted a MEPA analysis? and (2) Was the MEPA analysis adequate?
This frequent litigation highlights an area of MEPA that is broken and needs clarification.
3. Prioritize Proactive Forest Management
Historically, Montana’s healthy forests were large and effective carbon sinks. Now our forests are carbon emitters, overloaded with dead and beetle-infested trees and increasingly burning with catastrophic wildfires. Montana’s Climate Solutions Plan identifies expanding active forest management like thinning and prescribed burns as key strategies to reduce emissions by making forests more resilient to a changing climate and less prone to unnaturally catastrophic fires.
Unfortunately, critical forest management projects are often subject to MEPA-related litigation. MEPA reformers could simplify and streamline environmental reviews for active forest management projects to reduce uncertainty and lower the threat of lawsuits that slow down these critical projects.
4. Go Beyond MEPA
MEPA is a procedural law, intended to supplement agency decision-making. Reformers should assess opportunities for reforming other substantive environmental regulations, considering whether regulations are truly necessary to protect Montanans’ health, safety, and environment.
This article originally appeared in Lee Newspapers.