NRDC Activist,

Americans are crying out for leadership to confront racial violence against Black people and stop the spread of a deadly pandemic.

But instead of easing the pain of a nation in crisis, President Trump is focused on easing the pain of polluters.

Under the guise of an "economic emergency," Trump recently signed an unprecedented executive order that will allow the administration to ram through polluting projects like pipelines and power plants without adequate environmental reviews — all to help his big polluter allies.

This disastrous move will wreak havoc on our environment and public health, further derail our climate progress, and disproportionately harm communities of color. It's an utterly senseless abuse of emergency power and it will NOT stimulate our economy, despite Trump's claims.

NRDC is doing everything in our power to fight this pro-polluter giveaway and we need you standing with us.

Please submit an urgent letter of opposition to the White House right away: Let Trump and his cabinet cronies know that you see straight through their pro-polluter scheme and urge them to reverse course at once.

Trump's directive will allow industrial polluters to bypass the review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law that ensures a robust environmental review of federal projects, and that gives a voice to communities who are impacted by them. And this comes after the Trump administration has already taken steps to gut NEPA.

Keystone XL... Pebble Mine... fracking on the borders of Chaco Culture National Historical Park... uranium mining in the Grand Canyon... These are just a few of the catastrophic projects that could be fast-tracked with practically no public notice or environmental review under Trump's order.

Plus, NEPA is one of the few tools communities of color have to protect themselves against federal projects that disproportionately affect them. This callous rollback will hit those who live closest to polluting facilities and highways the hardest — in many of the same communities already suffering the most from the national emergencies at hand.

Trump's order also weakens standard environmental review requirements under the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act — which could have catastrophic consequences for wildlife already on the brink and put our drinking water at risk.

Act now: Let the Trump administration know that you see what they're doing and won't let it stand.

The move is just the latest by the Trump administration to permanently halt critical protections during the COVID-19 pandemic:

• In April, the EPA began allowing polluters to use COVID-19 as an excuse to stop monitoring and reporting on their pollution, which NRDC is now fighting in court
• In May, Trump instructed agencies to roll back or stop enforcing a wide range of public health and environmental safeguards
• And in June, EPA finalized a rule that will gut critical elements of the Clean Water Act and make it much more difficult for Indigenous groups, states, and the public to fight back against polluting projects like pipelines

Now, Trump is using the thoroughly debunked notion that weakening environmental laws leads to economic recovery as a smokescreen to push through projects for his pals in the oil and gas industry without the public's input.

But the evidence is overwhelming: Cutting environmental protection isn't going to speed up economic recovery. If anything, it will slow economic growth while harming communities, ecosystems, the atmosphere, and public health.

Enough is enough. Help us generate an overwhelming surge of opposition by submitting a letter of complaint to the White House right away.

Thanks for standing with us at this critical moment.

Sincerely,


Kabir Green
Director of Federal Affairs, NRDC