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Defenders Magazine
Defenders in Action: Another Key Law Under Siege
The steady stream of Congressional attacks continues on the nation’s keystone environmental laws. The latest target is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a law that requires federal agencies to “look before they leap” when planning projects that could cause environmental damage or harm the health and welfare of Americans.
A task force sponsored by the House Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.)—the same legislator pushing to gut the Endangered Species Act—last December recommended severely limiting how many and what type of projects can be reviewed under the law and when and how the public can challenge proposed projects and decisions affecting their communities.
Changes to the law proposed by the task force include exempting smaller—but perhaps no less environmentally damaging—projects from review and public comment, limiting the role of science in decision-making and limiting the overall number of projects that undergo comprehensive environmental reviews.
Congress passed NEPA in 1969 to give ordinary citizens a voice in decisions affecting their communities. “Only someone like Rep. Pombo would try to dismantle a law written to make sure we know the environmental consequences of proposed activities before they occur,” says Defenders’ President Rodger Schlickeisen. “NEPA has saved neighborhoods, parks and wildlife habitat from ill-conceived development. Millions of Americans have NEPA to thank for the quality of our communities today.”
