The Progressive Policy Institute and Common Good invite you to attend a morning forum on expediting and improving regulatory reviews of infrastructure projects on Thursday, May 19th in Washington, DC.
The forum, which is part of Infrastructure Week, will include keynote addresses by members of Congress plus two panels of experts from industry, labor, government, and environmental protection.
The purpose of this half-day forum is to highlight concrete ideas for speeding regulatory reviews of major infrastructure projects. It will highlight the significant costs – in terms of jobs, economic productivity and growth, and environmental damage – of long delays in approving projects for repairing and modernizing infrastructure. Getting permits can take a decade or longer. Delays in starting construction add significantly to a project costs – about five percent a year, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. Lengthy approvals also expose Americans to the safety hazards of unsafe bridges and roads, as well wasted energy from aging transmission lines.
Other countries manage to get projects up and running in less time. Germany, for example, puts a two-year deadline on regulatory review, without compromising that country’s strict environmental standards. We are convening this discussion to build common understanding of how government reviews can combine rigorous public oversight with expeditious approvals of projects that can save money, create jobs, boost U.S. productivity, achieve a greener footprint, and restore public confidence in the public sector.
Keynote address: Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)
Angela F. Colamaria, White House Office of Management and Budget
Gary S. Guzy, Covington & Burling; formerly of CEQ and EPA
Philip K. Howard, Common Good
Fawn Johnson, Morning Consult
Deron Lovaas, Natural Resources Defense Council
Will Marshall, Progressive Policy Institute
Jason Miller, White House National Economic Council
Philip D. Moeller, Edison Electric Institute; formerly of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
John D. Porcari, Parsons Brinckerhoff; formerly of the US Department of Transportation
Sophie Shulman, US Department of Transportation
Andrea Versteyl, National Regulatory Control Council (Germany)
Closing remarks: Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (D-CT)
