Administration Announces New Mitigation Policies

This afternoon, the Administration issued two policies intended to encourage private investment in natural resource conservation and to facilitate application of the mitigation hierarchy—avoiding, minimizing and compensating project impacts. These policies will apply to a wide array of projects with impacts on public lands and federally managed natural resources—from oil and gas development, to renewable energy facilities, to pipelines, roads and bridges. They follow through on commitments made in the Federal Plan on Infrastructure Permitting and the Department of the Interior's Strategy for Improving the Mitigation Policies and Practices. 

Presidential Memorandum on Mitigation

The first of the policies is a Presidential Memorandum directing the heads of five resource management agencies, including the Departments of Interior, Agriculture and Defense, to adopt clear and consistent policies for mitigating project impacts and encouraging private investment in