By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
In this Nov. 21, 1996, file photo, tourists cast their shadows on the ancient Anasazi ruins of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. Top officials with the largest Native American tribe in the United States are renewing a request for congressional leaders to hold a field hearing before deciding on federal legislation aimed at limiting oil and gas development around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. (AP Photo/Eric Draper, File)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Top officials with the largest Native American tribe in the United States are renewing a request for congressional leaders to hold a field hearing before deciding on federal legislation aimed at limiting oil and gas development around Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
The Navajo Nation has struggled for years with high poverty rates and joblessness, and the tribe’s legislative leaders say individual Navajo allottees stand to lose an important source of income if a 10-mile (16-kilometer) buffer is created around the park as proposed. They’re calling for a smaller area of federal land holdings to be made off limits to oil and gas development as a compromise to protect Navajo interests.
Navajo Council Speaker Seth Damon and other council members recently sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlining their concerns about pending legislation and the need to fund a comprehensive study of cultural resources throughout the region.
They said a field hearing would allow congressional leaders to “’hear directly from the Navajo people who face a real threat” under the current version of legislation. While the measure wouldn’t directly affect tribal or allottee land, allottees fear their parcels would be landlocked by a federal ban, making them undesirable for future development.
A World Heritage site, Chaco is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization. Within the park, walls of stacked stone jut up from the bottom of the canyon, some perfectly aligned with the seasonal movements of the sun and moon. Circular subterranean rooms called kivas are cut into the desert floor.
Outside the park, archaeologists say there are discoveries still to be made.
Other tribes, environmental groups and archaeologists have been pushing to stop drilling across an expansive area of northwestern New Mexico, saying sites beyond Chaco’s boundaries need protection and that the federal government’s leasing program needs an overhaul.
The Navajo Nation passed its own legislation in 2019 recognizing the cultural, spiritual and cosmological connection that Navajos have to the Chaco region. The measure expounded on the need for protections, but it also called for respecting and working with Navajo allottees.
In this April 24, 2015, file photo, pumpjacks work in a field in the Permian Basin near Lovington, N.M. Top officials with the largest Native American tribe in the United States are renewing a request for congressional leaders to hold a field hearing before deciding on federal legislation aimed at limiting oil and gas development around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The Navajo Nation has struggled for years with high poverty rates and joblessness, and the tribe’s legislative leaders say individual Navajo allottees stand to lose an important source of income if a 10-mile buffer is created around the park. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
The fight over development in the region has spanned several presidential administrations on both sides of the political aisle. Past administrations — including the Trump and Obama administrations — put on hold leases adjacent to the park through agency actions, but activists are pushing for something more permanent that won’t be upended by a future administration.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to hold a cabinet position, was among the sponsors of legislation calling for greater protections during her tenure in the U.S. House. A member of Laguna Pueblo in central New Mexico, Haaland has referred to the area as a sacred place.
She’s now under growing pressure to use her administrative powers to establish a buffer around the park pending the outcome of the federal legislation.
Several New Mexico pueblos, Navajo Council Member Daniel Tso and environmental groups also have sent letters to U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, voicing their support for the Chaco legislation. The first-term Democratic congresswoman also has spoken with Navajo leaders about her position on the matter.
Leger Fernández said Wednesday she’s committed to cultural preservation. She said once those resources are lost, they’re gone forever.
“We’ve been engaged in tribal consultation throughout and will continue conversations with Navajo Nation and the pueblos, as well as the Navajo allottees to protect allottees’ rights to develop their land as they see fit,” she said.
White House restoring environmental reviews for big projects
By MATTHEW DALY
In this Dec. 19, 2020, file photo, Brenda Mallory speaks at The Queen Theater in Wilmington Del. President Joe Biden is restoring federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects such as highways and pipelines. It's the latest reversal of a Trump-era environmental rollback. The White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday it will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest reversal of a Trump-era environmental rollback, President Joe Biden is restoring federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects such as highways and pipelines. The reviews were scaled back by the Trump administration in a bid to fast-track the projects.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday it will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions.
Last year, President Donald Trump overhauled the rules in a bid to accelerate projects he said would boost the economy and provide jobs.
Trump made slashing government regulations a hallmark of his presidency. He and his administration frequently expressed frustration at rules they said unnecessarily slowed approval for interstate oil and gas pipelines and other big projects. The rule change imposed last year restricted the timelines for environmental reviews and public comment and allowed federal officials to disregard a project’s role in cumulative effects, such as climate change.
The 2020 changes caused implementation challenges for federal agencies and “sowed confusion among stakeholders and the general public,″ the White House said in a statement. The changes proposed Wednesday will restore regulatory certainty and “help ensure that American infrastructure gets built right the first time and delivers real benefits — not harms — to people who live nearby,” Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said.
Contrary to assertions by the Trump administration, Mallory and other White House officials said, the new rule will actually speed up completion of major projects, since a rigorous review is more likely to withstand a legal challenge by environmental groups or states. Many Trump-era environmental decisions were reversed or delayed by courts after finding they did not undergo sufficient analysis.
Environmental groups and African American, Latino and tribal activists had protested the Trump-era rule change, saying it would worsen pollution in areas already reeling from oil refineries, chemical plants and other hazardous sites. The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, approved in 1970, is credited with giving poorer communities a platform to negotiate with government regulators and big industries over major projects.
“The National Environmental Policy Act is critical to ensuring that federal project managers look before they leap — and listen to experts and the public on a project’s potential impacts to people and wildlife alike,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation. “This proposed rule will help restore several foundational NEPA protections that were stripped away by the previous administration making a sham of the NEPA process.”
Rosalie Winn, a senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the new rule will allow agencies to consider climate change and other cumulative effects as they weigh major infrastructure projects, including a number that would be authorized under a bipartisan infrastructure bill that has passed the Senate.
The Environmental Defense Fund was among environmental groups that challenged the Trump-era rule in court. Those cases are now on hold.
Winn said she agreed with the White House that following proper NEPA guidelines ultimately allows major projects to move forward more quickly.
“We definitely saw during the Trump administration a real failure to follow requirements under NEPA and other laws that ultimately did slow down and halt a number of their actions,″ she said.
The new proposal “is an important first step to reestablish NEPA safeguards and ensure the federal government considers the climate and environmental justice impacts of industrial projects,″ Winn said.
The Council on Environmental Quality will accept comments through late November. The rule change is expected to become final early next year.
By MATTHEW DALY
In this Dec. 19, 2020, file photo, Brenda Mallory speaks at The Queen Theater in Wilmington Del. President Joe Biden is restoring federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects such as highways and pipelines. It's the latest reversal of a Trump-era environmental rollback. The White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday it will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest reversal of a Trump-era environmental rollback, President Joe Biden is restoring federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects such as highways and pipelines. The reviews were scaled back by the Trump administration in a bid to fast-track the projects.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday it will restore key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, a bedrock environmental law designed to ensure community safeguards during environmental reviews for a wide range of federal projects and decisions.
Last year, President Donald Trump overhauled the rules in a bid to accelerate projects he said would boost the economy and provide jobs.
Trump made slashing government regulations a hallmark of his presidency. He and his administration frequently expressed frustration at rules they said unnecessarily slowed approval for interstate oil and gas pipelines and other big projects. The rule change imposed last year restricted the timelines for environmental reviews and public comment and allowed federal officials to disregard a project’s role in cumulative effects, such as climate change.
The 2020 changes caused implementation challenges for federal agencies and “sowed confusion among stakeholders and the general public,″ the White House said in a statement. The changes proposed Wednesday will restore regulatory certainty and “help ensure that American infrastructure gets built right the first time and delivers real benefits — not harms — to people who live nearby,” Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said.
Contrary to assertions by the Trump administration, Mallory and other White House officials said, the new rule will actually speed up completion of major projects, since a rigorous review is more likely to withstand a legal challenge by environmental groups or states. Many Trump-era environmental decisions were reversed or delayed by courts after finding they did not undergo sufficient analysis.
Environmental groups and African American, Latino and tribal activists had protested the Trump-era rule change, saying it would worsen pollution in areas already reeling from oil refineries, chemical plants and other hazardous sites. The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, approved in 1970, is credited with giving poorer communities a platform to negotiate with government regulators and big industries over major projects.
“The National Environmental Policy Act is critical to ensuring that federal project managers look before they leap — and listen to experts and the public on a project’s potential impacts to people and wildlife alike,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation. “This proposed rule will help restore several foundational NEPA protections that were stripped away by the previous administration making a sham of the NEPA process.”
Rosalie Winn, a senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the new rule will allow agencies to consider climate change and other cumulative effects as they weigh major infrastructure projects, including a number that would be authorized under a bipartisan infrastructure bill that has passed the Senate.
The Environmental Defense Fund was among environmental groups that challenged the Trump-era rule in court. Those cases are now on hold.
Winn said she agreed with the White House that following proper NEPA guidelines ultimately allows major projects to move forward more quickly.
“We definitely saw during the Trump administration a real failure to follow requirements under NEPA and other laws that ultimately did slow down and halt a number of their actions,″ she said.
The new proposal “is an important first step to reestablish NEPA safeguards and ensure the federal government considers the climate and environmental justice impacts of industrial projects,″ Winn said.
The Council on Environmental Quality will accept comments through late November. The rule change is expected to become final early next year.
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