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| Dear Friend, |
| The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is one of the most effective tools communities possess to prevent polluting projects from impacting the health and environment of their neighborhoods. For decades, it has protected vulnerable communities from dangerous projects while simultaneously incorporating community feedback to construct better, more resilient projects that are less likely to face litigation. After the Trump Administration radically weakened NEPA regulations, the Biden administration immediately took steps to reverse these dangerous rollbacks and restore the regulations to their original, common-sense intent. It recently released proposed NEPA regulations that rightly incorporates numerous environmental justice and climate concerns aimed at helping us build out future clean energy infrastructure in a just and equitable way. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has opened a public comment period on this latest phase of updated regulations, and you can have your voice heard. Urge the CEQ to strengthen NEPA today! |
| This latest phase of NEPA regulations gives us the opportunity to finally reverse the Trump Administration's disastrous rollbacks and ensure NEPA continues protecting communities. The proposed regulations are an enormous step towards strengthening NEPA as a reliable framework for quickly building out the clean energy infrastructure we need to respond to the climate crisis in an equitable and just way. |
The final NEPA regulations must:
- Require agencies to consider project alternatives that would decrease impacts on air, water, and land while also looking at the cumulative impacts communities face from exposure to numerous pollutants.
- Reaffirm NEPA as a tool for environmental justice that gives communities the ability to have meaningful input in the project development process while helping avoid disproportionate impacts on frontline communities.
- Require agencies to include future climate impacts when considering new projects. Analyzing these risks will result in safer, more resilient infrastructure for communities.
- Mandate more transparency in the project development process by requiring a timely release of documents and a minimum 30-day comment period for community review of environmental assessments.
- Enshrine tribal consultation and respect for tribal sovereignty and indigenous knowledge throughout the project development process.
- Ensure a strong NEPA process that addresses the need to build out the clean energy transition in close consultation with communities most impacted by energy development.
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| As we face the worsening impacts of the climate crisis, entrenched environmental injustice, and accelerating biodiversity loss, we must invest in NEPA as an essential framework to build the infrastructure and drive the solutions that we urgently need in this decade. We must invest in upfront engagement, center climate change and environmental justice in reviews, and ensure smart master-planning to rise to the massive challenges we face now. Send a letter to CEQ to strengthen NEPA today! |
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Sincerely,
Stephen Schima
Senior Legislative Counsel |
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| Photo Credits: A Louisiana Bucket Brigade bicycle tour in Norco, Louisiana, on Mar. 16, 2022. Leading the tour was Sheila Tahir, with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Pastor Harry Joseph, a resident of St. James Parish and the pastor of Mt. Triumph Baptist Church. (Brad Zweerink / Earthjustice) |
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