Commentary: Today, the White House announced a proposal to significantly change how federal agencies would handle environmental reviews for energy and infrastructure projects. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law half a century ago, directs agencies to evaluate and mitigate the environmental impacts of development and requires extensive consultation with local communities before projects can proceed. The new proposal would allow agencies to weaken NEPA reviews and ignore the climate impacts of fossil fuel development.
In response, the Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Policy Director Jesse Prentice-Dunn:
"When it comes to climate change, the Trump administration is burying its head in an oil well to ensure corporations can drill and mine every corner of our country. "Weakening our nation’s bedrock environmental law will only help drilling and mining corporations at the expense of local communities, clean water, and wildlife. For three years, the Trump administration has done everything in its power to shut the public out, ignore the impacts of climate change, and ram new drilling and mining projects through the permitting process. Today’s announcement blatantly continues their track record of doing the oil and gas industry’s bidding. "This attempt to weaken environmental reviews will only open future drilling, mining, and pipeline projects to legal defeat. Courts have increasingly rejected the Interior Department’s efforts to offer widespread oil and gas leases without considering climate impacts. Instead of heeding those warnings, the Trump administration is embracing climate denial."
Learn more:
- Scoring the Trump Interior Department’s deregulatory hit list [Center for Western Priorities]
Clients have paid Secretary Bernhardt’s former firm $12 million to lobby the agency he now controls [Center for Western Priorities]
The Drilling and Mining Industry Wish List [Center for Western Priorities]
Bureau of Land Management forced to pull oil and gas leases due to inadequate environmental analysis [Salt Lake Tribune]