Nearly 80 members of Congress oppose dirty permitting provisions

Whether it’s oil and gas drilling on public lands, offshore oil rigs, or toxic mining in incredible places like the Boundary Waters, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is one of our most important tools to defend our health and environment. But now there’s an effort underway in Congress to significantly weaken this bedrock environmental law in order to speed up the construction of gas pipelines and other energy projects.

Seventy-seven members of Congress recently signed a letter led by Rep. Raul Grijalva, Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, opposing this undermining of NEPA. The letter, which U.S. PIRG supported, says, “These destructive provisions will allow polluting manufacturing and energy development projects to be rushed through before the families who are forced to live near them are even aware of the plans.”

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is simple: it requires us to look before we leap when building projects that could cause significant, long-term harm to our health, communities and the environment. And, it allows communities impacted by these projects to learn about the impacts and weigh in before irreparable damage is done. Without it, industry is not accountable to the common good or the people hurt by their actions.

We thank all the members of Congress who signed and call on them and their colleagues to oppose this effort to weaken NEPA.