Trump Touts Construction Jobs, Changes Reviews In Atlanta Stop

ATLANTA, GA — President Donald Trump denounced what he described as a cumbersome environmental review process sometimes lasting more than a decade that interfered with highway and pipeline construction projects. The president spoke at the UPS airport hub in metro Atlanta Wednesday to tout his administration's transportation agenda.

He announced a policy change designed to speed infrastructure projects by rolling back environmental reviews for roads, bridges and highway projects, such as an I-75 expansion, according to The White House.

Trump’s federal rule aims to meet some of the country’s infrastructure needs, reported the Associated Press. (You can watch video of his remarks on the White House You Tube channel below.

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1940 regulates how and when authorities must conduct environmental reviews, making it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical and solar plants and other projects. The law changed environmental oversight nationwide by requiring federal agencies to consider whether a project would harm the air, land, water or wildlife, and giving the public the right of review and input.

“Together we’re reclaiming America’s proud heritage as a nation of builders and a nation that can get things done," Trump said.

Among the major changes he announced: limiting when federal environmental reviews of projects are mandated, and capping how long federal agencies and the public have to evaluate and comment on any environmental impact of a project.

“We won’t get certain projects through for environmental reasons. They have to be environmentally sound. But you know what? We’re going to know in a year. We’re going to know in a year and a half. We’re not going to know in 20 years," Trump said.

Opponents say the changes will have an inordinate impact on predominantly minority communities. More than 1 million African Americans live within a half-mile of natural gas facilities and face a cancer risk above the Environmental Protection Agency's level of concern from toxins emitted by those facilities, according to a 2017 study by the Clean Air Task Force and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former associate administrator in the Obama administration’s EPA environmental justice office, said Black and other minority communities “will pay with their health and ultimately with their lives” for the rules changes.

"Today’s announcement by @POTUS is a win for the future of our state and economy," Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted. "By cutting red tape and streamlining bureaucracy, these reforms will pave the way for new infrastructure projects and ensure job creators can continue creating opportunity for hardworking Georgians."

Trump made his announcement in Georgia, a swing state in the November election. Trump won the Republican-leaning state by 5 percentage points in 2016, but some polls show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The president's trip also comes as the state has seen coronavirus cases surge and now has tallied more than 12,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 deaths.

This was Trump's ninth trip to Georgia since taking office.

Trump's last visit to Atlanta was in March, when he met with officials and toured the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The controversial trip to highlight the CDC and administration's work on the coronavirus drew criticism when the president said anyone could be tested at a time state's were scrambling to set up COVID-19 testing programs and procure protective gear for health-care workers.

“Coming here for a routine photo-op is, frankly, bizarre, surreal against this unprecedented health and economic crisis,” said Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is running against incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue.

He said Trump’s visit to Georgia to discuss infrastructure as the state’s coronavirus crisis worsens demonstrates that the president is “in denial and out of control.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.