"For five decades, NEPA has been the primary tool for US communities to learn about and influence infrastructure projects—like power plants, highways, and pipelines—that might affect them. NEPA guaranteed citizens information about the environmental and public health impacts of those projects: directly, indirectly, and cumulatively over time. Concerned parties could engage in a public review and comment process that could, and often did, lead to significant modifications to proposed projects to minimize their environmental harm. Finally, it let the public hold the government and third parties accountable should they fail to comply with NEPA regulations.

Trump’s overhaul of NEPA reverses those protections and processes. If it survives the expected legal challenges, it will undo 50 years of NEPA precedent and interpretations by federal agencies and the courts and make it much more difficult for communities burdened by pollution or worried about climate change to push back on destructive projects.  "