Just because you are a little paranoid ...

They say that just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. That certainly is the case with regard to America's Administrative State.

Some of us have lived and breathed the National Environmental Policy Act, "NEPA," for over 50 years and have watched the piles of worthless Environmental Impact Statements stack up in dusty corners, like cordwood beside a rustic cabin, fit more for the heat they may generate than any light they may produce.

The Council on Environmental Quality "CEQ" has generally been a backwater White House agency that everyone knew was there, but no one knew quite why.

In 1978, the CEQ put out regulations intended to guide administrative agencies with regard to evaluating specific actions that might impact "the quality of the human environment." The CEQ regulations were generally honored in the breach, and there are shelves of federal court opinions in law libraries across the country to prove it.

In 2020, the CEQ regulations were revisited with the aim of streamlining NEPA compliance, essentially relegating to the backwater this statutory barrier to infrastructure construction and the development of natural resources.

This was a wise use of executive authority because virtually every federal agency already had all the authority it needed to thwart any project on the horizon with interminable stipulations and prerequisites.

Alaska is a perfect illustration of that principle. Whether it relates to mine development or timber harvest, road construction or port upgrades, the volume of paperwork and the concomitant volume of dollars required to get anything done has proven humungous.

Despite our unlimited resources, investors are chary about trying to do business here. But this is not an Alaska-specific problem.

Highways across the country are in gross disrepair. Bridges are collapsing under the weight of traffic. Small farms are failing. Our national economic engine drives productive industries overseas, often to unfriendly venues.

Politically, the country is a mess, with roughly 60% of the electorate totally dissatisfied with either of the likely contenders for President in the next election, and there is no positive alternative visible.

In this context, the CEQ has promulgated new regulations, purporting not only to reinstate the shopworn 1978 iteration, but to supplement it with new, concerning, add-ons which will convert NEPA from its historic action-forcing role to an aggressive saber, broadening the scope of the NEPA process into new, unfounded areas of public policy.

The proposed regulations are extensive – 256 double-spaced pages of modified requirements which must be addressed by every proposed project in the country at some level.

Concepts such as environmental justice and tribal sovereignty, which somehow were overlooked when NEPA was first drafted, have crept into the quality of the human environment, while entrepreneurial protection stands on the sidelines.

The good news, such as it is, is that the national Environmental Industry will have an enhanced foundation upon which to base its attacks. Bureaucrats, likewise, will have renewed job security. In a sense, these regs bring a whole new meaning to the concept of artificial intelligence.

Anyone, everyone, who is already here or thinking of coming into the country, locally or nationally, will be well advised to set aside a few quiet hours to read through the proposed regulations.

There is a 60-day comment period, and the volume of comments will undoubtedly run into the hundreds of thousands. It is important for individuals to file comments, if only to increase the poundage. Needless to say, entities such as the Alaska Miners Association and the Resource Development Council will weigh in, but this freight train has all the earmarks of an irresistible force.

Those of us in the private sector have few tools to resist the inundation. For instance, the Administration is taking great care to finalize these regulations before the Congressional Review Act will have a meaningful window to slow the process.

The Small Business Administration, likewise, is just a straw in the wind.

It is unlikely that the pendency of these regulations will make it onto the radar screen of our Congressional delegation, or even the State administration. In any case, even the most strongly worded letter of admonition is likely to fall on deaf ears.

It remains a mystery to me why, when America desperately needs to protect and defend its economy, the beneficiaries of our strength are so committed to inflicting a thousand cuts.

I am just feeling a little paranoid.