Rollback also would eliminate NEPA public health and community input protections for major mining, pipeline, logging and other projects
Udall: ‘This move to gut NEPA is a new low for the worst environmental administration in history’
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) released the following statement after the Trump administration decided to undermine the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) by limiting the consideration of climate change impacts of new federal projects and eliminating NEPA reviews entirely for projects with major environmental impacts like mining, pipelines and logging:
“This move to gut NEPA is one of the worst decisions made by the worst environmental administration in history,” Udall said. “The Trump administration’s attempt to gut the only law that requires federal agencies to consider the environmental and climate related consequences of federal actions is an affront to all of our communities who deserve a voice in projects that affect their health, safety and economic well-being. Since 1970, the National Environmental Protection Act has ensured the federal actions are fully evaluated before decisions are made, protecting public health and including the public input necessary in a healthy democracy.
“At a time when we are staring down the serious threat of climate change to our way of life – especially in states like New Mexico -- and are in peril of another mass species extinction, NEPA is one of the few tools we have to limit further damage to our environment,” Udall continued. “To take climate change out of consideration shows willful blindness and gross negligence in the face of the climate crisis, by both making the problem worse and wasting taxpayer dollars when federal infrastructure is inevitably damaged by worsening floods and fires. While there may be ways to improve the process to both better protect the environment and provide more certainty to industry, this is simply another give-away to corporate polluters who will put profit before clean air and clean water and the health of our communities.”
