Youngkin administration says it aims to speed up environmental permitting

Chief environmental officials in Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration said one of their primary priorities during the next four years will be to review and speed up Virginia’s permitting processes.

“Taking a look at permitting is one of the priorities for this secretariat,” said Acting Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources Travis Voyles Wednesday during a forum on corporate sustainability, energy and the environment hosted by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

Similarly, Department of Environmental Quality Director Mike Rolband said his “number-one task is to make DEQ processes more clear and hopefully by clarifying things we can expedite the permitting process.”

Environmental permitting has become an increasingly contentious political issue in Virginia, where resistance to the Mountain Valley and now-canceled Atlantic Coast Pipelines has led to not only slowdowns in the issuance of state permits but numerous successful challenges in federal court to those approvals.