US Commerce Department removes environmental review rules for its own projects

The US Commerce Department is changing its internal environmental rules. It is removing references to a set of national environmental policy rules that were recently canceled.

The Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA) funds a lot of infrastructure projects. These projects include things like roads, water systems, and broadband internet. The EDA will now use its own, less strict, environmental review process for these projects. This could speed up approvals for some projects, especially those that might have faced delays under the old rules.