Environmental licensing: delay for analysis hinders the productive sector
The text establishes deadlines for the licensing bodies to pronounce on the licensing, which varies according to the type of license. Check it out below:
- Ten months for the issuance of a preliminary license (LP) if the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) is required;
- Six months for the prior license (LP);
- Four months for joint licenses without an impact study;
- Three months for installation (LI), operation (LO), corrective operation (LOC) and single (LAU) licenses
If, after this process, the body does not issue an opinion on the license requested by the entrepreneur, the latter can establish the supplementary competence of environmental licensing, which means triggering the next federal entity to try to release it. That is, if the body responsible for licensing was from the municipality and did not respond within the deadline, the state is appealed; if the state does not solve it, the Union is sought.
Lawyer Marcos Saes, a consultant for the Brazilian Construction Industry Chamber, believes that the modernization of the law will bring more investment to Brazil. “Especially the big projects already comply with more than what is required by Brazilian legislation. What is the problem with these projects? It is that even if you fulfill all of this, you do not have security, neither the time nor the necessary investment, much less the judicialization, which it can happen at any time during the project and paralyze you. So, if there are clear rules and with that you have a better prognosis and greater predictability, it is not an opinion, it is a fact that you will attract investment in sustainable projects”, he completes .
Licensing waiver
Another change foreseen by the project is the waiver of environmental licensing for some activities and undertakings. According to the PL, they would not need environmental licensing, for example, works and emergency interventions in response to collapse in infrastructure works, accidents or disasters; 69 kv (kilovolt) electricity distribution works; collection and treatment of water and sewage and maintenance and improvement of port and highway infrastructure.
Even if they are exempt from environmental licensing, these entrepreneurs need to obtain, when the legislation so requires, authorization to suppress native vegetation, granting of rights to use water resources or other licenses, authorizations and grants defined by law.
Federal deputy Ricardo Salles (PL-SP), former Minister of the Environment, points out that the lack of clear and unique legislation for environmental licensing hinders the country’s development. “The environmental issue has to contemplate predictability, legal security in order to attract investments. Today, one of the factors that brings greater insecurity to investors, including in areas that are essential for the environment, such as sanitation, is precisely the lack of legal security” , he says.
The cultivation of temporary, semi-perennial and perennial species of agricultural interest would also be exempt from environmental licensing; extensive and semi-intensive livestock and intensive small-scale livestock. Such exemptions would only be valid for regular rural properties or in the process of regularization, according to the text.
adherence and commitment
With regard to services and works for paving or duplicating existing highways, the bill states that a License for Adhesion and Commitment (LAC) may be issued. The LAC is nothing more than a declaration of adherence and commitment by the entrepreneur that the work complies with the law and the requirements established by the licensing body.
Critics of the project claim that the LAC will, in practice, exempt entrepreneurs from licensing. Marcos Saes says that ten states in the country already adopt the license by adhesion and commitment and that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) considers the legal modality.
“The entrepreneur signs a commitment with the state. The entrepreneur, together with the technician in the environmental area, that is, someone who has the technical knowledge for this, signs a technical responsibility document and says: ‘we undertake to comply with these conditions’ and then he gets the license. That is, you went through a licensing process. But the process doesn’t need to be lengthy, it doesn’t need to be time consuming, it doesn’t need to be so expensive”, he says.
The expert believes that LAC will make the work of environmental protection agencies more efficient, which will be able to direct their employees to closely monitor undertakings with a high impact on the environment, since the license by adhesion and commitment is not valid for these cases.
The bill has already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies and is awaiting analysis by the Federal Senate.
By Brasil 61
