Last week Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton issued an Executive Order calling on the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) to recommend ways to further simplify and improve the State’s environmental review process. The EQB is made up of nine state agency heads, five citizen members, and a representative of the Governor.

Streamlining the environmental review and permitting process has been a signature initiative of the Republicans who took control of both the House and the Senate in last November’s elections. During the 2011 legislative session, the Republicans, at the urging of many in the business community, made environmental review and permit streamlining a top priority introducing their proposal as House File 1 (HF1).

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