Looking back over 2022, it is incredible how far things have come for the environmental banking industry, and still how much work remains.
While the 2008 Final Mitigation Rule (Rule) gave the U.S. Army Corps clear regulatory guidance, challenges with implementation of the Rule continue through today. Important steps have recently been made in Congress to reinforce the mitigation hierarchy and the Rule at a time when proponents of lower-quality mitigation continue working aggressively to weaken the mitigation banking industry's standards for quality and reliability. NEBA, The Trusted Voice of the Mitigation Banking Industry, is continuing to actively track and respond to the efforts of those who wish to undermine quality environmental offsets for unavoidable impacts. Most recently, the Association sent letters highlighting inconsistencies with the Rule outlined in handbooks intended to train Inter-Agency Review Teams (IRTs).
Over the past year, NEBA has continued to press Washington for improvement in permit processing times for Mitigation Banking Instruments (MBIs) which according to U.S. Army Corps study take well longer than any other type of permit processed by the Agency. This vital work began in 2018. From these ongoing discussions with senior regulatory officials, there is new movement underway to remedy the apparent bottlenecks. This in part so that significant new investments in U.S. Infrastructure may proceed to ground with appropriate compliance. The legislative committee of NEBA has been receiving member reports of recent improvements in some Districts.
Mitigation Analyst Lite, an exclusive member benefit of NEBA, was upgraded to v6.0 in mid-year. The latest dashboards were released in partnership between NEBA member Trout Headwaters, Inc (THI) and Esri at the National Mitigation and Ecosystem Banking Conference in May.
As environmental bankers well know, the sheer volume of environmental data available is overwhelming. Couple that with the fact that vital mitigation industry data exists in multiple databases, and generally without the advantage of solid analytics or support. This responsive, portable, powerful platform crunching tens of millions of data points for very specific types of projects is a solution developed by industry - for industry.
Our year-end report would certainly not be complete without mentioning the Association's new 11 member Board of Directors elected by membership in May and now headed by former Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) the Honorable John Paul Woodley Jr. “ We have a diverse and talented Board and an engaged and growing membership, thanks to the inspired leadership of Donna Collier. She has given us a firm foundation, and will continue to contribute her vision as we build upon it,” Woodley said. “I am honored and humbled by the responsibility of chairing the Board of NEBA for the coming years," he said.
Despite the many successes of 2022 and prior years for NEBA, much work remains to be done. The National Environmental Banking Association and its committees are engaged on numerous fronts today -fighting attempts to roll-back the industry and the Rule, supporting high-quality mitigation in underdeveloped Districts, providing feedback to Congress and the Agencies, and much more.
JP Woodley at 2022 Conference
In the year ahead, NEBA will continue to provide access to the experts, with opportunities for questions from our members. We will be working directly with regulatory agencies to improve implementation of existing policies and practices. We will work on legislative issues, while providing the best available tools and information to our industry.
We welcome questions and feedback from our members. We are stronger together! Join Us or Renew Today.