Right this moment the Biden administration finalized a rule implementing modifications to the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act (NEPA), the bedrock legislation that guides how federal businesses assess the potential environmental impacts of proposed actions and interact with communities. The ultimate rule has restored key components of NEPA that have been weakened underneath the Trump administration whereas additionally strengthening necessities governing group participation and assessing local weather change and environmental justice impacts in federal company decision-making.
“We’re thrilled to see NEPA strengthened and restored. This new rule is a major win in defending communities from environmental hurt, and ecosystems that birds and different wildlife rely upon for his or her survival,” mentioned Sam Wojcicki, Senior Director of Local weather Coverage on the Nationwide Audubon Society. “A robust NEPA means higher public well being and environmental outcomes and fewer delays for responsibly-sited clear power infrastructure wanted to fight the local weather disaster. The brand new local weather and environmental justice provisions will lead to extra strong, extra resilient tasks, whereas guaranteeing that the voices of impacted communities are heard. Significant group engagement is crucial for an equitable, sustainable, and lasting clear power transition.”
In 2020, the Nationwide Audubon Society joined a lawsuit to problem the Trump administration’s rollback of critical protections underneath NEPA. That case was positioned on maintain whereas the Biden administration finalized this new rule. See statements from Audubon, NRDC, and companions within the NEPA lawsuit here.
Improved NEPA evaluation will assist the U.S. speed up clear power deployment with fewer conflicts and extra resilient tasks by requiring undertaking leaders to have interaction communities from the beginning and consider all potential impacts. Audubon’s report, Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, outlines the pressing want for added transmission capability and shares options for minimizing dangers to birds.
###
About Audubon
The Nationwide Audubon Society is a nonprofit conservation group that protects birds and the locations they want as we speak and tomorrow. We work all through the Americas in the direction of a future the place birds thrive as a result of Audubon is a robust, numerous, and ever-growing drive for conservation. Audubon has greater than 700 employees working throughout the hemisphere and greater than 1.5 million lively supporters. North America has misplaced three billion birds since 1970, and greater than 500 chook species are susceptible to extinction throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Birds act as early warning programs concerning the well being of our surroundings, and so they inform us that birds – and our planet – are in disaster. Collectively as one Audubon, we’re working to change the course of local weather change and habitat loss, resulting in more healthy chook populations and reversing present tendencies in biodiversity loss. We do that by implementing on-the-ground conservation, partnering with native communities, influencing public and company coverage, and constructing group. Study extra at www.audubon.org and on Fb, Twitter and Instagram @audubonsociety.
Media Contact: Megan Moriarty, megan.moriarty@audubon.org