The National Environmental Banking Association (NEBA) shares the interest of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and others to ensure appropriate environmental offsets are available for unavoidable impacts as someone trillion dollars in infrastructure starts to move to ground. While tens of thousands of impact actions are processed annually a mere 100 or so mitigation banking permits see approval according to most recent data.
USACE studies and data show that USACE is very slow to process Mitigation Banking Instruments slowing the permitting for ecological restoration at scale – the preferred form of mitigation since 2008.
In 2022, NEBA is shifting focus in support of more efficient permitting for mitigation bankers across the U.S. NEBA will be in consistent contact with USACE HQ, U.S. Congressional representatives, and other senior policy-makers through the coming year – working to support the long-standing initiative for ‘no net-loss’ of our wetlands – and increasingly focused on efficient MBI permitting on behalf of our membership.
If you thought it was taking a long time to process your application, READ THE CORPS STUDY, which reveals some of the challenges.
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
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 This mindset is not only outdated—it is actively harmful to both outcomes.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
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