Advocates for the West joins call to withdraw Emergency NEPA Procedures
21st of May 2025
Advocates for the West recently joined Earthjustice and conservation organizations from across the country to raise objections to the Department of the Interior’s Emergency National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Procedures, announced on April 23, and to the Council on Environmental Quality letter of the same date authorizing those alternative arrangements. The Emergency Procedures are premised on a baseless and unsupported declaration of a “national energy emergency” and violate Interior’s public participation obligations.
“The Procedures attempt to circumvent NEPA and shut the public out of energy approval processes, thus compromising the quality and integrity of the Department of the Interior’s decision making and leading to worse outcomes for communities and the environment,” the letter states.
In no way, shape, or form is there an energy emergency in the United States. Thus fast-tracking major energy and mining projects or circumventing ordinary environmental reviews and public scrutiny is not warranted. This not only threatens harm to communities and the environment, but is blatantly unlawful given the lack of true emergency conditions. Current prices for oil and gas are modest. The United States has seen record high fossil fuel production in recent years, and has been a net exporter of oil and natural gas for years.
Representatives from 30 organizations signed onto the May 16 letter to Secretary Douglas Burgam, requesting that Interior immediately withdraw the Emergency Procedures.
