Joint comments on proposed NEPA changes

Conservation Northwest / Mar 19, 2020 / News Releases, Public Lands

We submitted joint comments with 45 other conservation groups against a proposal to weaken the NEPA process.

This month we joined 45 other conservation groups to submit comments to the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ), urging them to withdraw the proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA requires public input and scientifically informed, transparent decision-making for federal actions on public lands.

NEPA gives communities a voice on how federal actions on public lands will impact their livelihoods. Photo: Eric Zamora

The proposed changes would eliminate NEPA review for many projects, ignore severe environmental, public safety, and health impacts, significantly weaken the review of alternatives, allow agencies to ignore critical public input, and allow project applicants to write their own environmental reviews without conflict of interest safeguards.

“NEPA provides vital protections to communities and is essential for sound stewardship of our natural resources and wildlife heritage. NEPA is the fundamental tool for a proper vetting of the impacts of major federal actions on wildlife, natural resources, and communities; for identifying less environmentally damaging alternatives; and for giving the public a say in federal actions that can have a profound impact on their lives and livelihoods. It also plays a key role in giving vulnerable communities a voice when federal projects may disproportionately impact them,” said the joint letter.