The National Environmental Banking Association (NEBA) recently provided comment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding the current draft In-Lieu Fee Instrument Review Workbook presented at a recent conference. While NEBA wholly supports the need for such guidance, the draft workbook states that released in-lieu fee credits (i.e., credits generated by a project completed by an in-lieu fee program in excess of debited advance credits) are equivalent to mitigation credits under the 2008 Mitigation Rule (33 C.F.R. 332.3(b)(2).
NEBA has told the agency that we believe this characterization seriously misstates the plain language of the Rule and that such a questionable policy would represent potential adverse consequences to the mitigation banking industry and the Corps of Engineers’ regulatory program.