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The new rule will significantly pare back environmental impact requirements, eliminate opportunities for public comment, and remove climate change and environmental justice considerations.<\/p>\n
It represents a major change in the way the USDA implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was signed into law in 1970 and requires the government to identify and assess the environmental impacts of any \u201cmajor federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the USDA, NEPA compliance can mean environmental assessments of grazing infrastructure<\/a> on public lands or of plans<\/a> to eradicate crop pests or to manage wildlife impacts<\/a> on farms and livestock.<\/p>\n Last spring, the Trump administration rescinded NEPA regulations that applied across the government and directed agencies to make additional changes.<\/p>\n In a press release<\/a>, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said the USDA\u2019s approach will reduce the volume of NEPA regulations by 66 percent and will lead to faster, more efficient reviews. \u201cThose savings benefit the American people, and quicker reviews mean the loans, critical infrastructure, and forest health projects our farmers, ranchers, and rural communities depend on can move forward sooner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But representatives of environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, who have a lawsuit in process against the USDA opposing the rule change, said the final rule<\/a> could shut the public out of important decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really takes away our right to know what\u2019s going on on our public lands,\u201d said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, who said she is also concerned about the USDA\u2019s \u201cvast\u201d expansion of \u201ccategorical exclusions\u201d\u2014instances in which environmental assessments are not required. \u201cThere will definitely be more rubber stamping of projects,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n