Major revisions to the environmental permit process within the Department of Natural Resources and the Pollution Control Agency were signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton March 3.
Sponsored by Rep. Dan Fabian (R-Roseau) and Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria), the law, effective March 4, 2011, requires the DNR and PCA to issue or deny environmental and resource management permits within 150 days of a submitted application. The 150-day clock will not start until the proposer’s application is considered complete. The DNR and PCA will have 30 days to make that determination.
Some applications can now take months or years to complete and drive would-be projects to neighboring states, said law proponents.
Under the law, statements of need and reasonableness for rulemaking will include an assessment of the difference between the proposed rule and existing federal standards for air and water quality, as well as standards in bordering states. The law also allows the review process to bypass district court and go directly to the Court of Appeals.
Concern over allowing a project proposer to draft their own environmental impact statement was a controversial topic. In his letter to the bill sponsors, Dayton said, “To assure the MPCA’s heightened vigilance over the projects following the enactment of this legislation, I am preparing an Executive Order that will instruct the MPCA, the DNR, and any other responsible state authorities to develop and implement whatever measures are necessary to assure that neither the quality nor the integrity of ensuing Environmental Impact Statements is compromised, and that there is no weakening of either their or any RGU’s performance of their reviews and oversight responsibilities.”
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SF42/CH 4
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