Some U.S. semiconductor manufacturing facilities will now be exempt from environmental reviews after President Joe Biden signed the Building Chips in America Act into law on Oct.2.
Without the law, projects from the $52.7 billion CHIPS Act of 2022 could have been forced to undergo additional federal environmental reviews to obtain permits.
The new legislation exempts facilities receiving government subsidies from being reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and the National Historic Preservation Act.
Supporters of the measure, such as the Semiconductor Industry Association, said that environmental reviews could have slowed or stopped projects already underway.
The U.S. Commerce Department has allocated more than $35 billion for 26 projects, including $6.4 billion in grants under the 2022 law to South Korea’s Samsung to expand chip production in Texas, $8.5 billion to Intel, $6.6 billion to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build its U.S. production facilities, and $6.1 billion to Micron Technology to fund U.S. factories….