Rollback of environmental law lambasted

Juan Mancias, Chairman of the Carrizo / Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. (Photo: Angel Amaya of Western Organization of Resource Councils)

DENVER – Indigenous leaders were among the many who raised their voices here Feb. 11 at one of only two hearings in the whole United States on a White House proposal to roll back guarantees of public participation in environmental decision making.
Coming from rural communities throughout the West, they rallied to an urban backdrop of street music, sirens and jackhammer sounds in the snow and ice outside of EPA Region 8 headquarters.
Testifying inside, they told the White House Council on Environmental Quality to abandon recent proposals that would reduce public comment opportunities and would curb consideration of projects’ cumulative impacts in regulatory rulings pursuant to the bedrock National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.
Juan Mancias, chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe, who traveled here from his native Lower Rio Grande Valley, spoke against the NEPA revisions, noting that the tribe has sued the federal government for the Administration’s two-year-old waiver of that law and 27 others. The waiver was for the purpose of building a wall between the United States and Mexico.
“We need to protect every voice, even the saguaro cactus. It takes us. It affects who we are. We are the original people of the land and we’re having to fight,” Mancias said, explaining that the wall is slated for construction three miles from the U.S.-Mexico border such that liquefied natural gas facilities, pipelines and other private projects behind the wall could be exempt from standard oversight while occupying ancestral land claims.
The Council on Environmental Quality points out that it needs to “modernize” and “update” regulations to “facilitate more efficient, effective, and timely NEPA reviews by simplifying and clarifying regulatory requirements.”
Its notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register on Jan. 10 is designed to “reduce unnecessary paperwork and delays, and to promote better decision-making,” it says.
It responds to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2017 Executive Order 13807 establishing a “One Federal Decision” policy, including a two-year goal for completing environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects.
“The increased costs and complexity of NEPA reviews and litigation make it very challenging for large and small businesses to plan, finance, and build projects in the United States,” the council says in a fact sheet.
However, the rules also apply to reviews of government projects, notes Lisa DeVille, who testified about the proposal on behalf of Ft. Berthold POWER (Protectors of Water and Earth Rights), from Mandaree, North Dakota.
“For tribal communities like Fort Berthold, which bear the brunt of health problems such as heart disease and asthma from the poorly planned federal projects, NEPA isn’t just an environmental protection law, it’s a critical tool for ensuring our voice. We cannot afford to lose it,” said DeVille, a tribal member of the Mandan Hidatsa & Arikara Nation.
“Any law that provides broad opportunities for public participation in government decisions that affect the environment and local communities shouldn’t be rolled back; rather, laws like NEPA should be embraced and strengthened. NEPA is one of the only avenues for tribal members to have any input on federal actions,” she said.
According to the American Bird Conservancy, “These revisions would significantly curtail scientific assessment and review of environmental impacts of federal projects. Additionally, these changes would eliminate important public comment provisions. It’s critical that the public be afforded the opportunity to comment on projects that affect birds, like the Bald Eagle and the habitat they depend on,” it says.
Navajo communities facing fracking in the Greater Chaco Region are the reason Navajo Nation Council Delegate Daniel Tso sent a representative to speak at the Denver rally. The Bureau of Land Management has approved more than 400 new fracking wells without adequate tribal consultation or protections for cultural heritage, community health, and water and climate impacts, according to opponents.
“Communities have consistently cited the need for more NEPA review,” he said, adding that government-to-government consultation between the Administration and tribes should take place prior to NEPA changes.
A May 2019 Tenth Circuit Court ruling held that BLM failed to analyze the cumulative water impacts of fracking in the Greater Chaco Region, a win for Navajo chapters in the impacted area. However, the requirement to do so would be nullified if NEPA regulations change as proposed, he said. “You win, but then they do this to get around,” he concluded.
San Felipe Indian Pueblo Council Member Tyrone Ortiz, who travelled from New Mexico to the rally, said the pueblo opposes changes to NEPA and weakening protection for the environment. He called for more public hearings.
“Currently the Administration is attacking us all to benefit industry,” he said. NEPA “exists to give the public time to consider and comment. These two public hearings are not enough.”
The second scheduled hearing was set for Feb. 25, at Interior Department’s Yates Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Tickets are available online, according to the council.
Ortiz exalted in the recent snowfall and continued, “We must consider our actions on this earth. Once we get together, we can assure that our future generations will be able to see what we see.”
Yvette Arellano, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services senior policy analyst, who moderated the rally, called the proposed rule changes “radical” and “drastic.” She said they respond to the needs of special interests, such as the American Petroleum Institute, which “are literally spending millions of dollars” to “severely restrict public input.”
API welcomed the proposed reforms in a Jan. 9 statement saying, “The move would reduce the red tape slowing critical infrastructure projects and create jobs across the country while strengthening environmental progress.”
API President and CEO Mike Sommers declared, “Endless and repetitive reviews for infrastructure, renewable energy, natural gas and oil projects have been misused to delay and derail development, which hurts job creation, reduces tax revenue and saps investments in communities across the country.”
API sustains that “improving permitting could unleash more than a trillion dollars in private-sector investment.” The National Petroleum Council reported that “overlapping and duplicative regulatory requirements, inconsistencies across multiple federal and state agencies, and unnecessarily lengthy administrative procedures have created a complex and unpredictable permitting process.”
The Council on Environmental Quality found that the average time for federal agencies to conduct NEPA reviews is four-and-a-half years.
Written comments will be accepted until March 10 via any of the following methods. Go to www.regulations.gov/ and follow the online instructions for submitting comments to Docket ID No. CEQ-2019-0003. Fax to 202-456-6546, or mail to Council on Environmental Quality / 730 Jackson Place NW / Washington, DC 20503 / Attn: Docket No. CEQ-2019-0003.