The impacts of Law no. 21.972/16 and normative deliberation no. 217 on simplified environmental licensing processes

Abstract

The present article has as its premise to promote analyses both quantitatively and qualitatively, in order to explain what the major impacts arising from the Simplified Environmental License (Law No. 21.972/16 and Normative Deliberation No. 217) would be. Quantitatively, the numbers of licenses granted before and after Law No. 21.972/16 were analyzed, and subsequently, the circumstances that led to this increase and the risks of environmental impacts were explored. The qualitative perspective was not disregarded, given the collection of information based on the idiosyncrasies of the bibliographic branch of scientific articles, which is the main focus of this article. Thus, bibliographic resources from secondary sources and an interview with an official from the Environmental Secretariat of Minas Gerais were used to uncover the impacts of the aforementioned legislations. The results demonstrated that there are risks concerning the analysis of consequences arising from this practice, since it fulfills the proposal of expediency but presents shortcomings in terms of proceduralizing impact studies.