President Joe Biden is expected to sign a bill that would roll back some environmental protections for semiconductor manufacturing projects, according to Politico.
The Building Chips in America Act is intended to streamline the federal review process for projects receiving funding under the Chips and Science Act. Under federal environmental protections rules, those projects are considered a “major federal action,” and therefore require a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review.
The bill would clarify that certain semiconductor projects don’t qualify as a major federal action and can be exempted from a NEPA review. That includes projects that have already received necessary permits and are underway, smaller expansions of existing sites and projects that require a state-level review that is as extensive as a NEPA review would be, among other criteria.
It also would declare the Department of Commerce as the lead agency to conduct reviews on projects that don’t meet those standards and still require a NEPA review.
When it comes to Micron’s planned semiconductor plant in the town of Clay, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon indicated last week that he believes federal intervention could speed the project up, especially as the ongoing environmental review has been blamed for delaying construction.
“Congress could say, we have NEPA reviews, you don’t need to go through a NEPA review. That could still happen for this project and that could change the timeline,” he said.
David Sonnenfeld, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies at SUNY ESF, told Spectrum News 1 that it’s unclear if the project will be exempted from the review under the bill, but it appears unlikely based on language requiring a Dec. 31, 2024, start date to qualify. Micron’s project has been pushed to next year.
“Each project has its own parameters, and the lead agencies looking at different aspects of the project will be making decisions based on the particulars of that project,” he said. “It may be a number of weeks for us to learn what that impact would be.”
The idea that companies could bypass the review is troubling to environmental advocates like Bobbi Wilding, executive director for Clean and Healthy New York. She stressed her concern that the collective memory of decades of environmental cleanup from past industrial mistakes could be fading.
Beyond concerns about chemicals related to semiconductor manufacturing, she emphasized the fear of many advocates that years of progress could be undone if such exemptions expand to other industries.
“If companies are allowed to bypass the environmental regulations that were put in place to prevent things like fires burning in rivers, we are going to replicate the past,” she said.
Environmental concerns related to the plant have been a subject of discussion in the race for New York’s 22nd Congressional District.
Rep. Brandon Williams, who is currently running for reelection, was a driving force behind the bill. In July of 2023, when it was introduced, he insisted it would help to move the Micron project forward.
“This Act will provide short-term relief to local and future projects, by eliminating the redundancies and regulatory requirements set under NEPA which would force projects like Micron to undergo environmental reviews that are already required by federal, state, and local mandates,” he said at the time.
We asked his opponent, state Senator John Mannion, if he would have supported the bill as written had he been in Congress at the time.
“I passed Green Chips to place Clay, New York, at the pinnacle of domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and to protect national security and grow local jobs. In Congress, I would support policies and investments that bolster advanced manufacturing in America,” he told Spectrum News 1 in a statement.