The Environment and Labor Coalition seeks to block unfounded partisan attacks on bedrock environmental laws

June 27, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Environment and Labor Coalition seeks to block baseless partisan attacks on environmental law on bedrock – 6/27/24

Republican-led lawsuit would overturn revitalized NEPA provisions that emphasize environmental justice and climate change

Communication:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; [email protected]

Geoffrey Nolan, Earthly Justice; (202) 740-7030; [email protected]

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON STATE—Today, a diverse coalition of environmental justice, labor, and conservation groups filed an intervention in a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s final Phase II regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The lawsuit, filed by 21 Republican state attorneys general, seeks to block the updated regulations that ensure federal decisions are informed by communities, tribes, and climate scientists.

In April 2024 The Council on Environmental Quality has finalized Phase II regulations which reversed many of the Trump administration’s harmful changes to fundamental environmental law. The updated regulations require federal agencies to consider climate and environmental justice impacts in their NEPA analyzes and mandate meaningful, early consultations with affected communities, including tribes.

“NEPA plays a critical role in SUWA’s mission to protect America’s wildlife. NEPA and its regulations allow SUWA and its members to engage in agency decision-making and, when necessary, challenge harmful decisions such as fossil fuel development projects, poorly analyzed travel management plans, and destructive plant treatments.” Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Staff Attorney Hanna Larsen said. “The Biden administration’s updated NEPA regulations ensure that federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management take into account climate change impacts and environmentally friendly alternatives in their work. Utah’s attempt to undermine these important laws will only harm public lands, wildlife and local communities.”

“This biased lawsuit is nothing more than a short-sighted attempt to silence communities that are at risk and ignore both scientific and Indigenous knowledge when making federal decisions,” he said Earthjustice Senior Counsel Jan Hasselman. “It’s greed taking over communities again.”

“While NEPA has historically been used to advance environmental priorities, we also use it to assess a project’s impact on labor, immigrant and human rights,” he said. Executive Director of the Labor Council for the Development of Latin America (LCLAA) Jose Vargas. “The labor movement is committed to building clean energy projects quickly and efficiently. The updated NEPA regulations give us a voice in that process, help us advocate for important worker protections and environmental standards, and result in stronger, more resilient projects.”

“NEPA is often one of the few resources that environmental justice communities have to directly raise their concerns with policymakers,” he said Co-founder of the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice and policy analyst Andrea Vidaurre“The Inland Empire has some of the worst air pollution in the country, and the NEPA process gives communities like mine the opportunity to voice our concerns, demand transparency, and hold decision-makers accountable. Attacking new regulations on environmental justice impacts would cause irreversible harm to my community and others living with the disparate impacts of polluting industries.”

“Despite the claims contained in this biased lawsuit, recognizing and integrating tribal governance practices and knowledge can be mutually beneficial to both the federal and tribal governments,” he said. Environmental Information Center Conservation Attorney Melodie Meyer“Tribal governments and communities have unique perspectives and knowledge that are critical to integrating into the NEPA process. As a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, I know that if federal agencies do not consider Indigenous knowledge, they will lose opportunities for more sustainable resource management. Indigenous knowledge and environmental justice are legitimate concerns that must be considered when making important project decisions.”

Read the lawsuit filed by the state.

Read the request for intervention.

Read customer testimonials on the importance of NEPA.

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This Southern Utah Wildlife Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters nationwide dedicated to protecting America’s Redrock Wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends Redrock, organizes support for the American Red Rock Wilderness Act, and cares for this world-famous landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.