NTIA Encourages BEAD, Middle-Mile Participants to Consider Climate Risks in Projects
States and territories participating in NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program and applicants for the middle-mile broadband infrastructure program should “familiarize themselves” with resources on identifying “project-specific climate-related threats” when establishing their broadband plans, said NTIA Director-Communications Policy Initiatives…
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Russ Hanser during a webinar Wednesday. “This is an important part of these programs” and "we do expect increased climate and severe weather-related risks to be a factor in network design and network maintenance over the next 20 years,” Hanser said, so “this is the best way to get started on thinking about those issues and building into the design when proposing projects and building projects with these federal funds.” Projects won’t be considered “cleared” under the National Environmental Policy Act “until NTIA issues that decision document” confirming it is, said Amanda Pereira, First Responder Network Authority NEPA coordinator-program analyst: “When we are looking at project descriptions, what we are trying to assess is what's going to be the impact on the physical environment and so, having an understanding of the physical imprint of the project is critical.” Applicants should “turn in the best project that they think is the best solution and we will work with them” if there are any categorical exclusions during an environmental assessment, said NTIA Middle Mile Director Sarah Bleau.