The People’s Environmental Law: National Environmental Policy Act

The National Environmental Policy Act helps communities protect themselves from dangerous, rushed or poorly planned federal projects. Join us in advocating for it.

Navajo community leader Daniel Tso speaks at a meeting at the chapter house in Counselor New Mexico where the Bureau of Land Management was hearing public comments on proposed new sites for leasing rights to additional drilling in the San Juan Basin.
Navajo community leader Daniel Tso speaks at a meeting at the chapter house in Counselor New Mexico where the Bureau of Land Management was hearing public comments on proposed new sites for leasing rights to additional drilling in the San Juan Basin.
Steven St. John for Earthjustice

When the government wants to build a toxic waste incinerator in your neighborhood, run a dangerous pipeline past your child’s school, or put a massive, costly freeway on top of a wetland, a federal law gives you the right to find out and fight back.

That law is the National Environmental Policy Act. It ensures you have a voice in major projects built in your community.

As the U.S. embarks on the most active period of building infrastructure since the New Deal, the National Environmental Policy Act process is an essential bridge — nor a barrier — to building in a sustainable, just, and equitable way.

When communities are engaged from the start, the result is more inclusive and resilient projects. When communities are silenced, we risk repeating the cycle of environmental injustice that leaves low-income neighborhoods and communities of color bearing the most pollution.

In July 2023, the Biden administration released a proposed rule to remedy harmful changes to the regulations made under the Trump administration. The changes roll back limitations on public participation and judicial review, while requiring federal agencies to consider environmental justice and climate change impacts when conducting environmental reviews. With these changes, NEPA can provide us with the framework to build out the clean energy infrastructure of the future in an equitable and just way.

Learn how the National Environmental Policy Act protects you:

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The National Environmental Policy Act enabled residents of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to uncover the truth behind a waste incinerator project.

What does the National Environmental Policy Act say?

The federal government must inform and engage the public it serves

NEPA allowed these individuals to advocate for removing four dams on the lower Snake River to restore wild salmon runs. They are four of the more than 480,000 people who made their voices heard on this issue. Pictured, clockwise from the top left, are for
NEPA allowed these individuals to advocate for removing four dams on the lower Snake River to restore wild salmon runs. They are four of the more than 480,000 people who made their voices heard on this issue. Pictured, clockwise from the top left, are former Idaho Fish and Game biologist Steve Pettit, Executive Director of the Nez Perce Tribe Rebecca Miles, Earthjustice attorney Todd True, and Nez Perce tribal member Elliott Moffett. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)

The National Environmental Policy Act, the nation’s oldest environmental law, has a simple mandate with a major impact. The law ensures the federal government informs and engages the public it serves. The three basic principles of NEPA are:

1. Transparency

When the federal government wants to build or fund a project like a highway, port, dam or prison, it must first disclose its plans to the public. NEPA guarantees that the public is informed of these plans because, after all, the public will have to live with the project’s consequences.

2. Informed Decision-Making

As the federal government prepares to build or fund a project, it must conduct a detailed study of:

  • how the project will be built
  • the consequences of the project (good or bad) for local communities
  • alternative ways to develop the project that still meet the government’s needs but better protect people and the  environment
  • measures that can be taken to lessen any harmful impacts of the project

3. Giving the Public a Voice

Before a project is started and throughout its development, the federal government must ask the public — including local communities — to voice concerns. They must also ask for local expertise regarding the project.

This is arguably the most important pillar of NEPA; it draws on our democratic values to ensure that projects are undertaken with the benefit of our communities in mind.

Public input leads to better developed projects with greater consensus and protections for our health and environment.

What has the National Environmental Policy Act achieved?

Saved lives, community integrity, endangered species and public land, and billions of dollars

An aerial view of homes and the blue ocean in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
For six years, Arecibo residents have used NEPA to halt a waste-to-energy incinerator, which a corporation wants to build in an area already contaminated with lead, arsenic and other heavy metals. (Alejandro Davila / Earthjustice)

Since Congress passed NEPA in 1970, the law has saved lives, preserved community integrity, protected endangered species and public land and saved billions of dollars, too.

Over the years, NEPA has often been the first and last line of defense against government mismanagement and industry abuse. NEPA success stories can be found across the nation. Here are just a few examples:

In Arecibo, Puerto Rico

The National Enviromental Policy Act’s critical safeguards helped to halt a waste-to-energy incinerator

If it weren’t for NEPA, Arecibo residents would have few tools to fight an incinerator that could further pollute the town's air and harm nearby wildlife. NEPA forced government agencies to conduct public hearings and an environmental impact review on the incinerator project.
If it weren’t for NEPA, Arecibo residents would have few tools to fight an incinerator that could further pollute the town's air and harm nearby wildlife. NEPA forced government agencies to conduct public hearings and an environmental impact review on the incinerator project. (Alejandro Davila / Earthjustice.(

On the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the National Environmental Policy Act has for the past six years helped the town of Arecibo breathe a little easier. There, residents have used NEPA’s critical safeguards to halt a waste-to-energy incinerator that would operate in an area already contaminated with heavy metals.

The incinerator, which proponents hope will get federal financing, would reportedly burn more than 2,000 tons of trash a day less than two miles from the largest wetland in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico residents face 2.5 times the death rate from asthma as residents of the mainland United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so the incinerator’s toxic fumes would be dumped into the air in an already at-risk community.

As Puerto Rico rebuilds from the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the last thing it needs is another blow to its environmental health. For Arecibo — and many other communities around the country — NEPA offers life-saving protection.

In Tinian and Pågan

Indigenous and low-income U.S. citizens used the National Environmental Policy Act to compel the U.S. Navy to consider the devastating effects that artillery, rockets and bombardment could have on their tropical homeland and sacred sites

Clockwise from the top left: Gus Castro on Apå'an Santatti Beach on Pågan. The beach is one site where the U.S. military wants to do live-fire training and practice amphibious landings. A Japanese bomber lies near the airstrip on Pågan. Relics from WWII litter the island. Guma Taga, an archeological site on the island. The site is filled with lattes, ancient stone supports that were used in construction. Earthjustice attorney David Henkin speaks with a client on Pågan.
Clockwise from the top left: Gus Castro on Apå'an Santatti Beach on Pågan. The beach is one site where the U.S. military wants to do live-fire training and practice amphibious landings. A Japanese bomber lies near the airstrip on Pågan. Relics from WWII can be found across the island. Guma Taga, an archeological site on the island. The site is filled with lattes, ancient stone supports that were used in construction. Earthjustice attorney David Henkin speaks with a client on Pågan. (Dan Lin for Earthjustice)

Prime farmland, fisheries, beaches, forests and coral reefs — now at risk in the North Pacific — are also benefiting from the defensive power of National Environmental Policy Act.

The U.S. government wants to conduct destructive war games on two islands, Tinian and Pågan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

There, mostly indigenous and low-income U.S. citizens are using NEPA to compel the U.S. Navy to consider the devastating effects that artillery, rockets and bombardment could have on their tropical homeland and sacred sites. Training could make it impossible for formerly displaced families to return to Pågan and could also disrupt access to vital emergency medical care.

If it weren’t for NEPA, low-income families and community leaders in the Northern Marianas would have little chance to protect their lands and livelihoods.

Cinta Kaipat

Tinian and Pågan

“We will fight this fight without firing a shot. The military will sit up and take notice and hear our voices.”
Cinta Kaipat is a resident of Saipan who has been fighting to return to her home island of Pågan.
Cinta Kaipat is a resident of Saipan who has been fighting to return to her home island of Pågan. Pågan was evacuated years ago due to a volcanic eruption, but now former residents are prevented from returning. The U.S. military wants to turn Pågan — and the nearby island of Tinian — into a live-fire training area. Kaipat is a client in an Earthjustice lawsuit that is using NEPA to protect Pågan and Tinian. (Lauren Benson for Earthjustice)