Elif Ensari and Marco Chitti Mentioned in Vice

Most countries have some type of environmental review processes, and whether they work ‘better’ than the U.S.’ is in the eye of the beholder. For example, Elif Ensari, a researcher for NYU who has looked into public transportation construction processes in Turkey, says that their projects can be built ‘very, very quickly’ and environmental reviews take as little as three months for public transit projects because they are fast-tracked as being a net benefit for the environment. But that’s partly because ‘they do it because they figured they have to’ if they want to join the EU. In Italy, the process is handled almost entirely within the bureaucracy, said Marco Chitti, who works for the same research group. And the public comment period happens only after the environmental review is completed. At that point, there is not much anyone can do to stop the project.