EDITORIAL: Bureaucratic hurdles delay new Las Vegas airport

Less than 11 years after its founding, NASA put a man on the moon. In contrast, it will take about another 12 years for airplanes to land at a new Southern Nevada airport — if everything goes well.

In recent months, a growing number of liberals have pointed out a major problem with Democratic governance. Blue cities, blue states and the federal government have created a crushing bureaucratic labyrinth that those hoping to build new infrastructure or development projects must navigate. Entrepreneurs and others can survive some regulatory delays and costs. But when the hoops start to pile up, they can delay projects for a decade or more. Some stall out completely.

Consider California’s failed attempt to build high-speed rail. Voters approved the plan in 2008. Despite billions in federal funding, it hasn’t laid a mile of track. Costly environmental reviews, which can drag on for years, is one reason. In 2023, Brian Kelly, then-CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said the cost of the “environmental clearing process” is “about $1.3 billion. And that’s for no steel in the ground or no cement.”

The need for reform is obvious. In May, a new bipartisan Build America Caucus started in Congress. Nevada’s Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford is a member. The caucus was created to prioritize “speeding up American infrastructure projects by streamlining requirements and cutting red tape.”

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of groups such as these. Many times they function as cheap virtue signals to casual voters. But even if the motives are cynical, the group has identified a real problem.

The caucus seeks to change the National Environmental Policy Act. For more than 50 years, the law “has required agencies to integrate environmental considerations into planning and decision-making,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

That may sound innocent. It’s not. Look at the effort to build a new airport in Southern Nevada to supplement Reid International Airport. Local officials have been working on it for 20 years. In 2006, the FAA moved forward with an environmental impact statement for the Ivanpah Valley site between Jean and Primm. Local officials asked the FAA to pause the effort when the economy tanked in 2010.

The region has since recovered. Local officials now want to move forward. They need a new environmental impact statement and must do so “in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act,” according to the project website.

“We’re expecting this to take three years,” said David Kessler, Project Manager of the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport EIS.

This is one reason the new airport isn’t expected to begin operations until 2037. That would be more than 30 years from planning to completion.

If Democrats or the Build America Caucus want a tangible problem to fix, they should speed up the construction of this much-needed project in Southern Nevada. It shouldn’t take decades to build a new airport in the desert.