NRD Regulatory Reform — The Time Is Now

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), the process for assessing and restoring natural resource damages (NRD) has become highly protracted and inefficient, resulting in extensive, unnecessary delays in the implementation of restoration projects. Many practitioners (for both industry and the government) have noted that the NRD assessment process often costs millions of dollars needlessly and delays actual restoration of injured resources by years, if not decades. Moreover, for many years, practitioners have put forward constructive proposals that could help the NRD process become efficient, transparent and effective, allowing the government to achieve restoration faster for the benefit of all.