Protect Your Voice: Take Action!
The bottom line is that if we don’t act now, Congress could, little by little, take away our right to have a say about federal government actions in our own backyards. Our message to Congress is simple: Never Eliminate Public Advice.
Sign the Petition: Tell Congress to Protect NEPA
For over 45 years, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has empowered local communities to defend themselves and their environment from dangerous, rushed, or poorly planned federal or industry projects. Our country’s oldest environmental law ensures that your community has a say when special interests want to build a toxic waste incinerator in your neighborhood or a dangerous pipeline next to your child’s school.
NEPA is woven so deeply into our framework that we often take it for granted. It’s so fundamental to our democratic process that it’s considered the “environmental Magna Carta.” Dirty industries and their advocates in Congress who seek to undermine our basic protections know they can’t do it head on by sponsoring legislation to eliminate NEPA. They’ve tried that strategy repeatedly and failed. Now they’re employing strategies to weaken NEPA instead, such as mandating special NEPA waivers for some projects or industries, cutting down the time periods for public comment or agency review, or imposing arbitrary deadlines no matter how complex the issue. Lawmakers attach these sneak attacks to important, must-pass bills, such as infrastructure funding bills. If they’re successful, informed decision making and the ability of people to defend themselves from government and corporate overreach will suffer.
Over time, however, opponents in Congress, backed by corporate polluter allies, have tried to gut this protection. In the past six years, over 180 pieces of legislation have sought to weaken or waive NEPA protections.
Your representatives are accountable to you, not to polluting industries. Please sign our petition below urging them to stand up for NEPA.
Dear Congressperson,
I urge you to protect the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from legislative attacks. NEPA ensures that our communities have a say in major federal decisions that affect our health and safety. It is often the only way for people to voice their concerns about the consequences federal projects will have on their communities and demonstrate how local expertise can improve them. Our communities are safer and healthier because of NEPA. Therefore, I urge you to vote against any bills that would weaken or in any way undermine the federal government’s environmental review process.
An attack on NEPA is an attack on our ability to keep our communities safe and healthy. As a member of Congress, it is in your power to protect us from hasty decision making that puts our communities at great risk. Protect our voice and protect our environment – protect NEPA.
Contact Your Members of Congress
Members of Congress need to hear that their constituents know NEPA is more than just paperwork. This week, please call your Members of Congress and let them know you support NEPA’s environmental review process.
Please call your Senators and Congressional representatives today and tell them to oppose any congressional or executive action that would in any way weaken or undermine the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
- Tell them who you are and where you’re from (including your zip code)
- Urge them to protect the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
- Insist that the next infrastructure package must not include any provisions that would attack, weaken or waive legal protections for local communities.
- NEPA is the foundation of reasonable, balanced and transparent decisions about how taxpayer dollars are spent that impact our health, our communities, and our environment.
- Restate your request: oppose any legislation that would undermine NEPA
Note: Please prioritize calls to members of Congress from your home district and state find their information by entering your zip code on the left.
Example Phone Call:
“My name is [YOUR NAME] and I am a resident of [CITY AND STATE].
I am calling today because I am concerned about attacks on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) protections, which requires the federal government to thoroughly review the environmental impacts of projects before approving them. NEPA also helps the federal government make better-informed decisions and is a powerful tool that prevents taxpayer money from being wasted.
The environmental review process ensures that the government actions remain transparent and take into account genuine concerns voiced by the public. The only people that benefit from limiting environmental review and weakening NEPA are special interests and companies that want to ram forward destructive projects with as little scrutiny as possible.
Therefore, I am asking you to vote against any bills that would weaken or in any way undermine the federal government’s environmental review process, such as the “Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017” (H.R. 2936). Furthermore, in wake of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, I urge you to support building new infrastructure only after adequate environmental reviews have been conducted. Rebuilding means making sure that new offices and homes can survive the next big hurricane or flood.
Thank you for taking my call.”
