Beginning with the 2021 DC Fly-In, outreach across the agencies and Congress by the National Environmental Banking Association (NEBA) has focused on concerns and issues relating to efficient review for Mitigation Banking Instruments AND to ensuring improved agency-wide adherence to the Mitigation Hierarchy bound within the Rule. This Hierarchy leads with a priority on highest-quality mitigation bank credits and is that what former Assistant Secretary for the Army - Civil Works, Hon. John Paul Woodley, who enacted the Rule describes as "the cornerstone of the 2008 Final Mitigation Rule." READ: Congress Encourages Corps to Speed Mitigation Credit Releases and Apply Hierarchy
This year, NEBA representatives, including Mr. Woodley, continued meetings with all the pertinent federal agencies including the U.S. Army Corps and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency senior policy leaders, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials, House and Senate Committee staff and others - in three days of discussions in the Nation's Capital.
Thanks to the work of the Association, continued pressure from Congress in support of mitigation banking is yielding increasingly direct guidance for the agency and its mitigation program. READ: Congress Presses Corps to Meet Mitigation Timeline and Expedite Credit Releases.
And just last week, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Michael Connor released Regulatory Guidance aimed at helping to eliminate inefficient processing for Mitigation Banking Instruments (MBIs):
"The 2008 Mitigation Rule stipulates a review timeline of no longer than 225 days for the Corps’ steps in the review process. Recent analysis of Corps data has shown that this timeline is not, on average, being met. This memorandum provides clarification on certain aspects of the 2008 Mitigation Rule to improve compliance with the mitigation bank and ILF program review timeline and thus support rapid investment in, and timely production of conserved and restored aquatic resources. The availability of mitigation banks and ILF programs provides benefits not only to permittees, but also projects implemented through the Corps’ Civil Works Program. Ultimately, taking the actions delineated in paragraph four of this memorandum is consistent with the Administration’s priorities of improving the permitting process and expanding the tools available to preserve, restore, enhance, and establish critical aquatic resources."
NEBA is grateful to see that businesses are stepping up to support mitigation and conservation banking - the best environmental solution ever devised for offsetting unavoidable impacts to our increasingly priceless natural resources.
A newly released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is shining a spotlight on a concern many in the mitigation banking industry have raised for years: inconsistent implementation of the federal compensatory mitigation program across U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts. Under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, the Corps requires compensatory mitigation when permitted
Read MoreFor too long, environmental policy debates have been framed around a false and unproductive premise: that economic growth and environmental protection are inherently at odds. This mindset is not only outdated—it is actively harmful to both outcomes. Mitigation banking offers a clear path forward. By design, it aligns economic incentives with ecological restoration, proving that well-functioning
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