Chief environmental officials in Gov. Glenn Youngkins administration stated that one of their top priorities over the next four years is to review and speed-up Virginia’s permitting processes.
Acting Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Travis Voyles stated Wednesday that permitting is one of their top priorities. This was during a forum on sustainability, energy, and the environment hosted at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
Mike Rolband, Director of the Department of Environmental Quality, stated that his number one task is to make DEQ processes clearer and hopefully by clarifying certain things we can speed up the permitting process.
Virginia’s environmental permitting issue has become a contentious political issue. The resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipelines, now canceled, has led to delays in issuances of state permits and numerous successful challenges to those permits in federal court.
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