By Katherine Tamburrano, Alliance Intern from UT Austin ‘27
Important environmental protections put in place to keep the federal government accountable for its impact on the environment are being thrown out like they don’t matter. A proposed law called the SPEED Act is awaiting Congressional action to accomplish just that. It “prioritizes the interests of fossil fuel, mining, and other corporate polluters at the expense of our families and communities,” according to the Sierra Club.
The SPEED Act will specifically target the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which is a landmark law passed in 1970 that the Sierra Club says “has long been an essential tool to ensure that taxpayer dollars and public infrastructure serves the public interest and ensures a healthy environment for present and future generations.”
NEPA plays a critical role by requiring federal agencies assess the environmental impact of proposed land use, such as the construction or permitting of highways, airports or energy facilities like an oil refinery or pipeline on federal lands. NEPA can delay, alter or entirely replace projects deemed a danger to the health and safety of the community and the environment with more sustainable alternatives, which does not make developers happy.
If you don’t take the time to assess the environmental impact, the rush to development can lead to dangerous consequences. In 2023, an oil pipeline in Minnesota called Enbridge Oil Pipeline 3 breached a groundwater aquifer for the fourth time “near Moose Lake, at a wild rice lake in an area with complex wetlands and peat bogs.” Despite Enbridge’s assurances in its questionable environmental review that the pipeline would be safe, it has already caused numerous violations.
Pipeline proponents and the fossil fuel lobby have long sought ways to “reform” NEPA by eliminating as many regulations as possible that federal agencies must follow. The Trump Administration and Republican legislators are now attempting to accomplish this with the SPEED Act.
Trump has already had a huge negative impact on these protections by signing executive orders during his second term. For example, the Unleashing American Energy executive order diminishes the NEPA reviews so the agencies conducting them have less requirements to adhere to. Another act by the Administration gives the federal government to reign free with no regulation, and wreak havoc on the environment.
The SPEED Act “would further gut NEPA, limit reviews, weaken science, and eliminate government accountability when agencies fail to adequately consider the health, environmental, or economic impacts of their decisions,” according to the Sierra Club. Congress, under the orders of Trump to “drill baby drill,” will use the SPEED Act to slow the development of clean energy and put it on the back burner. This bill furthers Trump’s goal by eliminating delays, thereby favoring corporate profit over public interest.
Both the executive orders Trump signed earlier this year, as well as the proposed SPEED Act, will limit public input, which means our voices are silenced, including that of environmental justice organizations like the Sierra Club.
Don’t let corporations destroy our precious natural resources and pollute the air we breathe and water we drink to the point of no return, simply for next quarter’s profit margins.
Take a step to protect your health, the climate, and our future, and join the Alliance in signing this letter by the Sierra Club to tell your representatives to oppose the SPEED Act that dismantles our country’s bedrock environmental protections.