Donald Trump is changing regulations to allow federal agencies to avoid discussing climate change in environmental impact studies.
John,
Donald Trump just announced a massive, environmental rollback to fast-track projects like the Keystone XL pipeline and other environmentally disastrous plans.
Unbelievably, Trump is allowing federal agencies to avoid discussing climate change when evaluating the environmental impact of infrastructure projects like highways and pipelines under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
That means that oil companies and frackers could get rubber-stamp environmental approval for projects like Keystone XL — even if they would mean “game over for the climate.” But Trump can’t put this change into effect until after a 60-day public comment period, and we need to make sure the public response against this rollback is overwhelming.
NEPA is one of the most important environmental laws you might never have heard of. It’s often been called the “Magna Carta” of environmental laws.¹
NEPA requires that federal agencies conduct an environmental impact study on any major infrastructure project. Trump’s plan is to simply look to exclude consideration of climate impacts of projects and to fast-track polluting projects by arbitrarily restricting review criteria and timelines.This is ridiculous.
One immediate consequence of this rule change is that it would put projects like Keystone XL on a glide path for final approval and construction. But that’s just the beginning. It would signal to the fossil fuel industry that they can expect little or no resistance for projects that would be devastating for the climate, including a wave of new pipelines, drilling on public lands, highways and more.
Food & Water Action will fight this new rule with all available resources.
We’ll mobilize a major public outcry during the 60-day public comment period to show Congress and the Trump administration that the public strongly opposes this rollback.
If Trump doesn’t back off, we’ll call on Congress to take action to block this rollback.
If that doesn’t work, we’ll investigate every legal option to sue the Trump administration to stop this attack. Considering how blatantly this plan conflicts with the clear intent of the National Environmental Policy Act, we believe we will win in court if it comes to that. But going up against the army of lawyers from Big Oil and the frackers won’t be cheap or easy, so we’re counting on your help.
Food & Water Action and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Watch, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate. This email was sent to [email protected] - and we're glad you got it, because it's one of the most important ways you can reclaim political power, hold elected officials accountable and resist corporate control.
