17
Aug
Take Action: Tell the Trump Administration to Focus on Enforcing the National Environmental Policy Act, Not Changing the Regulations
(Beyond Pesticides, August 17) Please comment by the deadline of Monday, August 20, 2018, 11:59 pm EDT. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has announced plans to weaken one of our country’s bedrock environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA provides a foundation for environmental law in the U.S., and requires a precautionary approach that is stronger than other laws. NEPA requires the government to investigate and publish results concerning all alternatives –including a “no action” alternative of major federal actions.
While the NEPA regulations can be improved, the current administration has been dismantling environmental protection programs. We do not believe that this is the time to open up NEPA regulations, given the importance of this program. Tell the Trump Administration to enforce current CEQ regulations –during this period when we are seeing serious degradation of the environment with the loss of species 100 to 1000 times the normal rate, tropical diseases advancing into temperate regions in step with global climate change, and elevated environmentally induced diseases, such as cancer, asthma, and autism.
The American Bird Conservancy and other organizations are submitting detailed comments, which can be viewed here for more background.
CEQ is accepting comments through Regulations.gov. For quick copy and paste, use the text below to comment at Regulations.gov. Add a personal message at the beginning about why this is important to you, if possible.
Suggested comments:
CEQ’s regulations provide a well-crafted, comprehensive framework for implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA. The regulations have stood the test of time well. Rather than contemplating a rewrite of the regulations, we urge that CEQ invest its modest resources, and most importantly, its leadership position, in a systematic initiative to enforce them. Changes to the regulations will not result in improvements unless federal agencies have the organizational structure and resources that facilitate their implementation. The single most important key to efficiency and effectiveness is having competent, trained, and adequate staff in agencies to implement the regulations. The existing regulations already address many of the questions raised by CEQ in regard to reducing paperwork and delay. What is lacking is the capacity and will to fully implement the regulations.
CEQ has an essential leadership role in ensuring that agencies receive the appropriate direction and resources. As the agency with NEPA oversight responsibility, CEQ should lead an effort to identify the real-world obstacles to implementing those provisions and ensure that the goals of inclusive analyses and informed decision making are met. Only after undertaking such an effort should CEQ consider whether any regulatory revisions are warranted.
Thank you for this opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Note on posting in Regulations.gov –the method federal agencies use to collect public comments/
Not sure how to do this? Follow these simple steps:
- Select the text you want in the suggested comments above (place your cursor before the first word in the text, then press and hold down the left mouse button and, without releasing the button, move the cursor to the end of the comments).
- Copy the selected text by selecting the Ctrl and C keys simultaneously.
- Click on this link to open a new tab and in that tab, place your cursor in the “Comments” box.
- Paste the comments you copied by selecting the Ctrl and V keys simultaneously.
- Personalize your comments before entering your contact information and selecting “Continue”.
Thank you for taking action!
Please, don’t allow these deadly pesticides, wiping out important bees, affecting all of our health.
August 17th, 2018 at 4:17 pmWhat century are monsters living in!? In this day & age we are ALL aware of the cost of pesticides, chemicals…that is killing ALL life on the planet including humans. It is not even necessary to spray. I have gardens that I NEVER use chemicals, soaps…& the plants are THRIVING & the bees, wasps, birds…have clean, fresh, TOXIC FREE plants to pollinate!! My plants are thriving with bees!! I am no scientist but clearly even I can see poisoning the plants is NOT NECESSARY & only results is KILLING EVERY LIVING THING INCLUDING PLANT LIFE!!
August 17th, 2018 at 4:33 pmwe love bees
August 20th, 2018 at 2:59 pmI honestly do not understand why profit comes before human, animal and planet welfare in our interest in these multi-million dollar companies that are poisoning us! It is the very same world those people live in so how it is that they do not have the same outlook on these known carcinogens blows my mind. There was a time that protecting much needed crops, coupled with ignorance of what the danger was, necessitated the use of some of these chemicals but today we know other, safer ways of protecting our crops. Please protect our future generations and consider what we are allowing to happen to our environment and strengthen not weaken restrictions on chemical use in our food supplies.
August 20th, 2018 at 5:13 pmIf Trump and associates are trying to increase the destruction of our planet and ecosystems then they are doing a great job of escalating the destruction. Most people are against the destruction of this planet, ecosystems and people. I was going to comment but the deadline was for the Eastern time zone. I am against more environmental destruction. Therefore, i am in favor of environmental protection by regulation of the polluters. We do not need to weaken the regulations to protect the earth. Instead we need to increase the regulations and we need to enforce the regulations.
August 21st, 2018 at 12:26 am