Microchip industry lobbyists are urging Washington to exclude new projects from the federal environmental reviews attached to huge federal subsidies.
The chip industry’s push underscores the tension between President Joe Biden’s plans to resurrect high-tech manufacturing in the U.S. and his administration’s effort to strengthen environmental protections. | Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesAs Washington prepares to pump $39 billion in federal subsidies into new microchip plants, the chip lobby is pressuring the Biden administration to relax environmental review requirements or risk ceding the semiconductor supply chain to China.
At issue is the National Environmental Policy Act, a decades-old law that puts extra environmental review requirements on construction projects in which the federal government plays a major role. While many industries, like highway builders or other infrastructure contractors, have decades of experience dealing with the law, it’s something new for the semiconductor industry — and it’s hoping to avoid it, arguing that any delays could spell trouble for Washington’s broader chip plans.
In a Friday statement, McMorris Rodgers warned that Washington will be unable to beat China in the fight over microchips and other tech if new projects are “bogged down and delayed by America’s burdensome regulatory and permitting environment.” She said the issue “should have been addressed before Congress spent tens of billions of dollars” on chip subsidies, but added that House Republicans “will continue to lead on solutions that address permitting issues for every industry in our economy.
Some environmentalists disagree with that claim. Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the chip lobby’s fears “feel like unnecessary paranoia that’s mostly stemming from an unfamiliarity with how NEPA works.” He said the law is frequently trotted out by industry as an “umbrella scapegoat for all types of delays in approvals of projects.
“Unfortunately, that seemed to fall on deaf ears,” McMorris Rodger said. “[The manufacturers] were really interested in the money.”
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