The Trump Administration's rollback will make it harder for Americans to have a voice in infrastructure and industrial projects in their communities. Photo: Shutterstock
March 27, 2025 (Boston, MA) – A broad range of national, statewide, and local civil rights, environmental justice, and environmental organizations and Tribal nations are calling on the Trump Administration to preserve environmental regulations for Americans in a public comment letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
“No matter where we live—whether it’s New Bedford, Boston, or Baton Rouge—most of us want the same basic things: clean water, clean air, and healthy families,” said Britteny Jenkins, Vice President of Environmental Justice at Conservation Law Foundation. “That’s what the environmental justice protections in NEPA are all about—making sure communities have a real say in decisions that impact their lives. They ensure people have power—not just pollution—in their neighborhoods. Across the country, we’re coming together because we all deserve a fair shot at fighting for what matters most—and that starts with being heard.”
The Trump administration moves to roll back portions of nearly five decades of rules under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in an Interim Final Rulemaking decision. NEPA, which is widely known as the “magna carta” of environmental laws, ensures that the public is able to engage in decisions that affect Americans and our environment like the placement of power plants, oil and gas infrastructure, industrial facilities, and highways and bridges.
In the public comment letter, the groups write that the Administration’s actions go against the United States’ commitments to advance environmental justice through NEPA and other means. The groups argue that the CEQ’s Interim Final Rule:
- Will create confusion across agencies and decentralize regulations, ultimately harming the American people
- Will make it harder for Americans to have a voice in infrastructure and industrial projects in their communities
- Ignores the need to create a safe and healthy environment, and protect our people from adverse environmental decisions
Ultimately, the CEQ and the federal government have a duty to uphold equity, transparency, and accountability in federal decision-making to protect Americans from environmental harm. Rescinding the environmental justice components of NEPA will make it harder for historically excluded communities to be part of environmental decision-making processes.
The public comment letter is available here. The organizations that drafted the public comment letter include Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE); Abre’ Conner, Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, NAACP; Gregg Macey, Center for Land, Environment & Natural Resources, UC Irvine School of Law; Conservation Law Foundation; Marianne Engelman-Lado, Director, and Layne Whitted, Research Assistant, Environmental Justice Initiative, NYU School of Law; LatinoJustice PRLDEF; and Stephanie Safdi, Supervising Attorney, Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic, Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization.
Additional statements around the matter are below.
“Black Americans and communities of color are 75% more likely to live in communities near industrial facilities – such as chemical or power plants – and are disproportionately affected by toxic emissions, traffic, noise, and odors, and should have the opportunity to weigh in on these types of decisions” said Abre’ Conner, Director of NAACP’s Center for Environmental and Climate Justice Strategy. “Lacking decision-making power and access to solutions by the people most harmed perpetuates these environmental injustices. Without the environmental justice regulations in NEPA, even more communities across the country could be harmed by hazardous waste polluting the water we drink and the air we breathe. Having community-based stopgaps can also stop centuries-old problems from being the quick answer when we can build innovation into our solutions. We need environmental justice protections so our communities can engage in discussions about environmental decisions that affect us the most.”
“Environmental justice responsibilities under NEPA exist regardless of Administration,” said Gregg Macey, Director of the Center for Land, Environment & Natural Resources at UC Irvine. “They stem from Congress and judicial opinion, not from executive order. EPA planning and implementation documents under both Democratic and Republican Presidents make this clear. And as overburdened communities have made clear hundreds of times, agencies can’t carefully consider the consequences of their actions with incomplete or cursory – let alone nonexistent – evidence, including the social and economic impacts that result from physical changes to the human environment.”
“For decades, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities have borne the brunt of environmental hazards, breathing in polluted air, living near toxic waste, and facing the worst effects of climate change,” said Lourdes M. Rosado, President and General Counsel, LatinoJustice PRLDEF. “NEPA has served as a key tool for advocates to combat these injustices. Rolling back NEPA’s regulations is an outright attack on communities of color. LatinoJustice demands that the Administration withdraw these changes and uphold its responsibility to protect all of our communities.”
Experts are available for further comment.
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