Restored NEPA Centers Climate Change and Environmental Justice
Words by Megan Moriarty, Communications Manager
Yellow Warbler on Seaside goldenrod. Photo: Lisa Flannagan/Audubon Photography Awards
Today the Biden administration finalized a rule implementing changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the bedrock law that guides how federal agencies assess the potential environmental impacts of proposed actions and engage with communities. The final rule has restored key elements of NEPA that were weakened under the Trump administration while also strengthening requirements governing community participation and assessing climate change and environmental justice impacts in federal agency decision-making.
“We are thrilled to see NEPA strengthened and restored. This new rule is a significant win in protecting communities from environmental harm, and ecosystems that birds and other wildlife depend on for their survival,” said Sam Wojcicki, Senior Director of Climate Policy at the National Audubon Society. “A strong NEPA means better public health and environmental outcomes and fewer delays for responsibly-sited clean energy infrastructure needed to combat the climate crisis. The new climate and environmental justice provisions will result in more robust, more resilient projects, while ensuring that the voices of impacted communities are heard. Meaningful community engagement is critical for an equitable, sustainable, and lasting clean energy transition.”
In 2020, the National Audubon Society joined a lawsuit to challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of critical protections under NEPA. That case was placed on hold while the Biden administration finalized this new rule. See statements from Audubon, NRDC, and partners in the NEPA lawsuit here.
Improved NEPA analysis will help the U.S. accelerate clean energy deployment with fewer conflicts and more resilient projects by requiring project leaders to engage communities from the start and evaluate all potential impacts. Audubon’s report, Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, outlines the urgent need for additional transmission capacity and shares solutions for minimizing risks to birds.
About Audubon
The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. Audubon works throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. State programs, nature centers, chapters, and partners give Audubon an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire, and unite diverse communities in conservation action. A nonprofit conservation organization since 1905, Audubon believes in a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Learn more at www.audubon.org and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @audubonsociety.