Nixon signed this key environmental law. Trump plans to change it to speed up pipelines and more
Trump plans this week to overhaul a federal law that poor and minority communities around the country have used for generations to delay or stop projects that threaten to pollute their neighborhoods — a law he says needlessly blocks good jobs, industry and public works.
The president’s plan to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law signed with much fanfare by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, would make it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical plants and other projects that pose environmental risks.
If the final version mirrors a proposal from January, it would force agencies to complete even the most exhaustive environmental reviews within two years and restrict the extent to which they could consider a project’s full impact on the climate.
Trump is scheduled to announce the changes on Wednesday in Atlanta, as part of his effort to revive the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But the proposed changes also threaten to rob the public, in particular marginalized communities most affected by such projects, of their ability to impact decisions that could affect their health, according to many activists.
“This is the epitome of environmental racism,” said Angelo Logan, the 53-year-old campaign director for the Los Angeles-based Moving Forward Network, who grew up surrounded by highways, rail yards and industrial plants in nearby Commerce. “The working class, communities of color, will have to suffer the brunt so corporations can make money hand over fist.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/nixon-signed-this-key-environmental-law-trump-plans-to-change-it-to-speed-up-pipelines-highway-projects-and-more/2020/07/14/a8a5cd22-c51a-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html
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