California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general in urging several federal agencies to stop the implementation of new rules that rescind regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The agencies addressed include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and Department of Transportation.
The coalition submitted comment letters arguing that these immediate changes largely eliminate existing NEPA regulations and replace them with what they describe as “non-binding” procedures. According to the attorneys general, this move could cause environmental harm nationwide, reduce public participation in decision-making processes, and result in less-informed decisions regarding environmental impacts.
“For over 50 years, NEPA has served as the cornerstone of environmental oversight, ensuring that communities have a voice in major projects that affect their air, water, land, and livelihoods,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The rollback of these regulations undermine transparency, weaken environmental safeguards, and silence the very communities – often low-income, rural, and indigenous – that NEPA was designed to protect. Alongside attorneys general nationwide, we will not stand by as the federal government continues to strip away environmental protections and urge all federal agencies to halt this unlawful recission of NEPA regulations immediately.“
NEPA was enacted in 1969 and is considered one of the main U.S. laws for protecting the environment. It requires federal agencies to assess potential environmental effects before taking actions like approving large infrastructure or energy projects or making key decisions about public lands.
The coalition claims that rolling back these regulations removes important protections for communities by allowing potentially polluting projects to proceed without thorough review. They argue that excluding indirect and cumulative impacts from consideration will create confusion during project planning and may allow significant greenhouse gas emissions to go unchecked.
In addition to California’s attorney general, officials from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont Washington; District of Columbia; and Harris County Texas co-led this effort.
Copies of the five comment letters are available online.
