From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
The most important environmental law you’ve never heard of is on the chopping block.
Whether it’s oil and gas drilling on public lands, offshore oil rigs, or toxic mining in incredible places like the Boundary Waters, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is one of our most important tools to defend our environment.
But now there’s an effort underway in Congress to significantly weaken this bedrock environmental law.1
Tell Congress at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=51793: Don’t weaken NEPA’s environmental protections.
NEPA may sound wonky, but it’s incredibly important for protecting Pennsylvania’s environment. The law requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts before allowing potentially harmful projects such as mining, oil drilling and pipeline construction.
For 50 years, NEPA has quietly protected some of our most precious, environmentally sensitive places. It helps federal agencies minimize the environmental impact of the projects they oversee, and consider less damaging alternatives.
NEPA also requires that the public be given a chance to weigh in on these projects … a chance you’ve likely taken advantage of yourself if you’ve signed many of our petitions.
Tell your U.S. House representative and senators: Don’t gut NEPA.
Allowing dirty, dangerous and destructive projects such as oil pipelines to sail through without fully considering the damage they could cause to our environment or climate would be disastrous. Essentially, our government would no longer have to look before it leaps.
In a world already running short on nature, we should be doing more to protect what we have, not making it easier to build over it.
1. Valerie Volcovici, “After U.S. climate bill win, environmental groups turn to permit reform,” Reuters, August 16, 2022.
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