Fifty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon signed one of the most effective laws ever written to protect the environment and strengthen democracy by ensuring that citizens would have a say over projects like highways and pipelines that directly affect their well-being.
New rules that he proposed on Thursday for carrying out the law would strike at the heart of the public’s right to know what our government is doing or failing to do on our behalf and to speak to the lasting impact those actions might have.
Often called the Magna Carta of environmental law, the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act requires that major energy and infrastructure projects receiving federal funding or requiring federal approval must undergo environmental reviews.