Yesterday, federal agencies began publishing en masse radical changes to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules and policies significantly weakening and in some instances entirely eliminating otherwise longstanding protections essential to federal agency decisions that serve the public interest.
Heeding the call of fossil fuel companies, the tech industry, and other profit-oriented interests, the Trump administration’s changes by and large cut the public out of decision-making, limit what agencies must disclose, and allow agencies to circumvent environmental review and sweep aside prospective harms to people and the environment. They are also expected to provide cover for agencies to ignore climate change and environmental justice concerns.
These changes result from the Trump administration’s decision earlier this year to eliminate the Council on Environmental Quality’s nearly 50-year leadership role in promulgating government-wide NEPA implementation rules. As a result, these agency-by-agency changes are expected to create confusion and chaos for the public and developers alike, who must now navigate a patchwork of different NEPA processes.
“The Trump administration is steamrolling ‘the people’s environmental law’ with a barrage of new rules and policies. These anti-democratic actions let fossil fuel and other industries devastate the climate, public lands and wildlife, and communities for profit. They also foreshadow coming attacks from Congress under the pretext of ‘permitting reform,’” said Marlyn Twitchell, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “We implore good faith political leaders to join with us to fiercely protect the public’s right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives, health, and the places they love, oppose the further erosion of bedrock laws essential to climate and conservation action, and work constructively to identify progressive pathways out of the terrible ruins of this political moment.”
NEPA regulation update documents by agency/entity (none contain the word “climate”):
- Department of Interior
- U.S. Air Force
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Defense
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
- Department of Energy
Critically, this barrage of attacks amplifies the harm caused by the Trump administration’s budget reconciliation bill, which passed the U.S. Senate today in a highly partisan 51-50 vote with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking the tie. The Senate passed the bill despite significant disapproval from Americans as evidenced by multiple polls showing roughly 2-1 public opposition—an overwhelming margin. The budget bill, if it becomes law, will ravage the country’s public health system, favor fossil fuels, eliminate essential climate policies designed to speed the development of renewable energy, and otherwise eviscerate a host of public interest protections to pay for tax cuts for the hyper wealthy and the militarization of the U.S. immigration system. It is expected to be followed by an equally aggressive and radical legislative effort by Congress later this year to further attack bedrock climate and environmental protections under the guise of “permitting reform.”
Contact:
Marlyn Twitchell, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-485-2471, ext. 144, gro.w1751683254alnre1751683254tsew@1751683254llehc1751683254tiwt1751683254
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