Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta promised Friday to speed up authorization for new airport runways to ease passenger delays, prompting opposition from environmentalists.
Acquiring permits for runways now can take more than 10 years. The acceleration, sought by the airline industry, followed a report that showed flight delays reached record levels last year. Planes arrived late about 27 percent of the time, the worst rate since the Transportation Department began collecting data in 1995.
"We begin today to ease the process of review for expansion of airport capacity," Mineta said at a meeting of industry and government officials. The former Democratic congressman was President Clinton's commerce secretary before President Bush named him to oversee transportation
While there are fears the change "will mean setting aside our concerns for environmental issues ... I am committed to making sure that it is not," Mineta said.
Bryan Hager, director of the Georgia Challenge to Sprawl campaign, said the plan could backfire.
"It creates not only the opportunity for mistakes but ill will that will engender lawsuits which will drag these out even longer," he said. "It may be a false victory."
Mineta said state and federal environmental impact assessments of proposed projects can be done simultaneously, instead of back-to-back. He also said the government can more quickly convert former military bases to airports.<
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CA Is Burning said:
They ignored the danger, even after repeated complaints.
CA Is Burning said:
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