Press Releases
Kuster Statement on Trump Administration’s Rule Weakening Bedrock Environmental Law
Concord, N.H.,
July 16, 2020
This week, Rep. Annie Kuster (NH-02) released the following statement after President Trump announced his final rule overhauling the project review process required by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in January 1970: “President Trump’s rule change will take the teeth out of NEPA, the bedrock environmental protection law of our nation for the last half-century. The rule allows shortcuts for projects like pipelines and chemical plants while ignoring their impact on climate change and limiting community input about what is built in their own backyards. Let’s be clear – President Trump’s decision puts pollution and corporate profits above public health and the environment. Instead, we need to be investing in clean, smart infrastructure and energy projects that create good-paying jobs and mitigate harm to our climate, air, lands, and waters. I urge the Trump Administration to immediately withdraw this shortsighted rule.” Congresswoman Kuster has joined her colleagues in calling on President Trump to withdraw the NEPA rule, as well as his June 4 executive order that would allow some projects to sidestep key environmental reviews due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, she voted for the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion plan to improve American infrastructure in ways that are environmentally-conscious. In addition, she has introduced the Protecting Our Conserved Lands Act, which would prevent natural gas pipeline projects from using eminent domain to seize lands that are conserved by local governments or nonprofit entities such as land trusts. ### |