The Trump administration is reversing major environmental protections that require the US government to take a close look at how proposed projects like pipelines and highways affect surrounding communities.
Trump announced the changes Wednesday afternoon from a UPS airport center in Atlanta, where he endorsed the expansion of commercial truck lanes on Interstate 75. The White House said projects like the Atlanta expansion would have taken seven years to complete. afford and now it should take less than two years
The White House Council on Environmental Quality finalized changes to regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa), which Republican President Richard Nixon signed in 1970. The new rules reduce the number of projects subject to review, reduce the scope of the reviews and exclude the effects related to climate change from being considered significant.
“For decades, the biggest obstacle to building a modern transportation system has been the mountains and mountains of bureaucracy in Washington DC,” Trump said.
Less than 1% of projects funded or allowed by federal agencies require complete environmental impact statements under the law. But those who do are significant.
Before Nepa, “you could wake up one day and see half of your neighborhood razed,” said Caitlin McCoy, a lawyer for Harvard’s energy and environmental law program. In 1956, the federal government demolished hundreds of houses in an African-American neighborhood in St Paul, Minnesota, to make room for Interstate 94.
“We have spent so much time talking about the ‘setbacks’ of the Trump administration, and most of that has focused on how the Trump administration has attempted to undo the regulations that were established under the Obama administration … but this is really significant because these regulations have been in place since 1978 and only minor changes have been made over the years, “McCoy said.
“It shows how far the Trump administration is willing to go and how emboldened they feel in three and a half years.”
The Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines have faced opposition and indigenous-led lawsuits alleging violations of Nepa, delaying their development.
The DC district court recently ordered the closure of the Dakota Access pipeline while preparing an environmental impact statement. The court ordered a further study in response to the legal challenges of the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, which argue that the pipeline could risk an oil spill that would contaminate the water they depend on for fishing, drinking and religious practices.
Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Montana in 2018 was also halted by a court ruling that there was insufficient Nepa analysis. Some work on the pipeline is now on hold after a court revoked its water crossing permit due to concern about endangered species.
Matt Hil, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, said Trump was trying to “destroy a fundamental bipartisan law” to distract himself from failing to deliver on his campaign promise to pass major infrastructure legislation.
“While Donald Trump is distracting and destroying, Joe Biden has established clear and concrete steps to create millions of high-paying union jobs, achieve environmental equity and justice, and ensure that the United States rebuilds better,” Hill said.
Lisa Ramsden, a senior climate activist at Greenpeace USA, said that “the Trump administration’s anti-environmental agenda is a racist one” and “dismantling Nepa is a blatant attempt to silence working-class communities of color that resist to the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in their communities. “
Environmental group Earthjustice said the changes “would open the door for the government to exempt pipelines, large-scale logging operations, waste incinerators, smog-free roads and countless other federal environmental review actions or drastically limit the ability of local communities to participate in the environmental decision-making process. “
But the American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for oil and gas companies, applauded Trump’s changes. CEO Mike Sommers said that “they would drive not only the modernized pipeline infrastructure we need to supply cleaner fuels, but also roads, bridges and renewable energy.”
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