Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org, 914-261-4626
Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump is expected to announce final new regulations gutting requirements for environmental reviews of fossil fuel infrastructure, logging projects, and other major federal actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
NEPA is the nation’s bedrock environmental law and is instrumental to civil rights protection. NEPA requires federal agencies to identify significant environmental, economic, social, or health impacts of major projects before decisions are made and construction begins, and gives impacted communities an opportunity to participate in the process. Express evaluation of environmental justice consequences has long been a key component of NEPA analysis.
These changes to NEPA were made at the request of the fossil fuel industry, and would limit opportunities for public participation, open the door to potential conflicts of interest, and allow federal agencies to completely ignore cumulative impacts, including those to the climate and on communities already facing high levels of pollution.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
“Shame on Donald Trump and his administration for seeking to put vulnerable communities at even greater risk and silence those who would speak out in order to give corporate polluters a free pass. NEPA gives a voice to communities whose health and safety would be threatened by destructive projects, and it is despicable that the Trump administration is seeking to silence them. As the country faces a global pandemic and grapples with persistent racial injustice, the last thing communities need is an attack on this bedrock environmental and civil rights law. We will pursue every legal avenue to fight back against this anti-democratic, racist, and deeply destructive plan.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.