Washington (Platts)--20Feb2013/448 pm EST/2148 GMT

The White House Wednesday unveiled details of an infrastructure spending plan that includes faster approvals for certain energy projects.

The plan, which calls for spending $50 billion on transportation infrastructure and new partnerships between government and private companies for infrastructure projects, includes a plan to quicken approvals for pipelines, renewable energy and other construction projects.

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"The administration's infrastructure permitting initiative has shown that we can cut federal review and permitting timelines for construction projects such as highway, bridges, railways, ports, waterways, pipelines and renewable energy by several months to several years," a fact sheet on President Barack Obama's plan states. "This modernization effort will achieve time savings of 50% in the federal permitting and review process, while ensuring projects create better outcomes for communities and the environment."

During his State of the Union address last week, Obama said his administration "will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits" to "encourage" the move to clean power and energy independence.

--Brian Scheid, brian_scheid@platts.combrian_scheid@platts.com
--Edited by Valarie Jackson, valarie_jackson@platts.com

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