Action Alerts

Polluting industries are trying to silence communities

What's At Stake

The Trump Administration is gutting one of our nation’s most important environmental laws for the benefit of polluting industries. Our communities will pay the price.

For decades, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has given people a say in federal projects that directly impact their communities, while requiring the government to analyze and disclose the potential impacts of a project. This means that when the government wants to bulldoze a community to build a highway, greenlight trash incinerators in communities of color, or construct oil and natural gas pipelines that threaten precious water sources, communities can fight back.

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It’s no surprise that polluting corporations have been trying to dismantle this powerful environmental tool — and with President Trump in office he has done just that: eliminated all rules that implement NEPA across the federal government. Worse yet, the Trump administration is urging over 80 agencies to follow the disastrous 2020 regulations they issued in the first term and that Earthjustice challenged in court on behalf of dozens of organizations around the country.

Tell the Trump administration that communities deserve a seat at the table when it comes to projects that imperil their safety and well-being.

This is the latest play to slash and burn safeguards with zero care for the consequences in real life. This move won’t improve decision-making or make the government more effective. This will create widespread chaos, with individual federal agencies deciding their own way to implement NEPA. It will undoubtedly cause confusion and prolong timelines for approving projects as agencies scramble to analyze project impacts without clear, consistent guidance. By prohibiting consideration of environmental and health impacts on communities historically overburdened with dirty air and water, projects will benefit fossil fuel producers and polluting industries over the public interest.

Tell this administration that we need this key tool to fight damaging projects that threaten our access to clean air, clean water, and land free from pollution and contaminants.

Navajo community leader Daniel Tso speaks out against fracking at a Bureau of Land Management meeting that was required under the National Environmental Policy Act. The law gives communities a chance to speak out against projects that will impact them.
Navajo community leader Daniel Tso speaks out against fracking at a meeting that was required under the National Environmental Policy Act. The law gives communities a chance to speak out against projects that will impact them. (Steven St. John for Earthjustice)

7 Days Remain

Delivery to Council on Environmental Quality

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.