Streamlining requirements have helped reduce a backlog of permit applications, and a report by Lester last year concluded that an increase in staffing since the recession has allowed the agency to process appeals more quickly.
And Yellowstone National Park officials said visitor centers would reopen there by Sunday afternoon, with the majority of staff returning Monday to begin working on a backlog of permit requests, including from those seeking to do research in the park.
Other business interests complain about a backlog of state environmental permits that now number in the thousands.
But he added, "It is time for the government to clear the backlog of deepwater drilling permit applications so industry can create the energy, jobs and economic growth our nation needs so badly".
As of January 31, BLM had a backlog of 2,802 drilling permit applications, according to a Department of Interior release.
The issues stem back to July when the LTFRB requested that Uber and rival Grab both stop allowing new drivers on to their services to give it time to catch up on a backlog of applications for drivers seeking ride-hailing permits.
The suspension was ordered after Uber apparently flouted a temporary ban on adding new drivers while the regulator worked to catch up with a backlog of applications for drivers seeking ride-hailing permits — though Uber has claimed it had not been adding new drivers during this period (though it had lodged an appeal against the suspension).
Instead, we have in place a sort of passive freeze - one that applies only to new planning, while permitting a huge amount of new construction to go ahead, since there is a backlog of plans that have already been approved but not yet implemented.
In 1988 the Foreign Office resorted to the ultimate sanction permitted under the Vienna Convention and expelled a Tunisian diplomat who had built up a £700 backlog of unpaid parking tickets.
The backlog for air permits now surpasses 400, according to agency records, and waiting applications of wetlands permits have reached 1,643 -- a portion of which predates the McGreevey administration.
