While the U.S. avoided default, a bedrock environmental law was weakened.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has faced years of attacks driven by the fossil fuel industry. An important bedrock environmental law, it requires the federal government to investigate the health and environmental impacts of projects like the construction of oil pipelines. Oxfam and our partners have worked hard to defend NEPA, but recently Congress turned it into a bargaining chip.
Threatened by NEPA’s protection of people rather than profit, the political allies of the fossil fuel industry held the recent debt ceiling bill hostage, demanding that parts of NEPA be amended. In June 2023, when the bill passed, NEPA was changed for the worse.
What’s Different
Some of the most important changes made to NEPA:
- Environmental impact studies can only last two years
- Corporations can petition courts to stop the impact studies if the time limit is exceeded
- After a project passes the first environmental review, it doesn’t need to go through any more for the next five years
- Fewer federal projects are subject to environmental review
- Environmental documents, like impact studies, have page limits with no exceptions
- Categorical exclusions are increased, which means more pieces of projects can sidestep further environment impact investigations
Additionally, the bill granted streamlined approval of the permits to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will run natural gas through Virginia and West Virginia. This prioritization of fossil fuels and the changes made to NEPA are major steps backwards during a time when the climate crisis is demanding we leap forward. They make it harder for projects to have thorough environmental reviews, and easier for projects to put profits above the health and safety of people and the environment. In 2010, when BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig project was allowed to bypass NEPA reviews, it exploded and caused one of the biggest marine oil disasters in history. With these new rollbacks, we are getting closer to future disasters such as this one.
Still, all is not lost. After huge pushback, a court recently paused construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline despite the bill’s attempt to force construction forward. This signals that, in the midst of Congress’ attempt to sell out local communities, this fight is not over.
Next Steps
We will continue to work to stop future attacks on our country’s bedrock environmental laws. In the past year alone, Oxfam and our allies helped stop Sen. Manchin’s attempts to further weaken NEPA three times. We put pressure on the Biden administration to continue to restore key pieces of NEPA that the Trump administration removed. We also delivered 21,976 petition signatures to the Biden administration’s Council on Environmental Quality, demanding the protection of NEPA and other important environmental justice laws. While the debt ceiling bill codified some of the NEPA rollbacks, we will continue to hold political leaders accountable so that they stop putting polluters over people.
There are many important parts of NEPA that remain intact and are worth both defending and strengthening. If you would like to stay updated on what happens and how you can get involved, sign up for our newsletter below.