The ACA signed on to a letter, led by the Winter Wildlands Alliance, alongside our partners in the human powered outdoor recreation community to support the fundamental intentions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA is a fifty year old bedrock piece of environmental legislation that establishes a broad national framework for protecting the environment. It assures proper consideration is given to the environment on any federal action that may have a significant impact.The rollback of NEPA is presented as an attempt to streamline the law and speed up the process for permitting projects such as freeways, power plants, and pipelines, but the process of streamlining such development, the fundamental intentions of NEPA are gutted.
The rollbacks eliminate the need for agencies to analyze the indirect of cumulative effects of a project on the environment, and instead requires analysis of impacts that are only reasonably foreseeable. Ultimately, the NEPA rollbacks increase the chances that bodies of water may be adversely impacted by development projects, thus impacting the paddling community.
Please read the full letter of support, here.
Sincerely,
Brett Mayer
ACA Public Policy Chief