Senate releases Pentagon bill with PFAS, energy provisions: “The Senate Armed Services Committee
released a summary yesterday of its $740.5 billion fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill with several energy and environmental provisions. The committee approved the legislation in a 25-2 vote behind closed doors Wednesday and yesterday published a summary
of prominent policy points. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) led efforts to authorize an additional $10 million in the bill to continue the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's health impact study on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAS were
used in military firefighting foam and later seeped into groundwater near bases. These chemicals have been known to cause reproductive issues and certain types of cancer. The legislation would also authorize an additional $2 million for addressing PFAS pollution
near military housing. Shaheen's proposal to provide blood testing for service members and their dependents who were exposed to PFAS as well as a reimbursement from DOD for cleanup in contaminated communities did not make it into the bill. "Unfortunately,
the amendment was not successful, as all Republicans on the committee voted against it," said Ryan Nickel, a spokesman for Shaheen. "Senator Shaheen will pursue other avenues to advance these provisions." Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D) authored a successful
amendment allowing the Pentagon and the National Guard to clean up PFAS contamination based on state drinking water standards. PFAS were a major point of contention during last year's National Defense Authorization Act talks, and tougher provisions are likely
to surface in the House version later this month.”
[E&E News, 6/12/20]
https://bit.ly/2YwzC5d
Want to create good forest jobs? Pass the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act: “Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, recently introduced a bill (S.3684) adding $10.6 billion more to the U.S. Forest Service budget. Combined with the $5.7 billion already appropriated, that gives the agency a whopping $45 million a day, to bulldoze more logging roads and
clearcut our dwindling national forests, destroying fish and wildlife habitat, and further imperiling endangered species. As we learn more about COVID-19, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that deforestation increases the risk of global pandemics.
The question is: Why spend scarce taxpayer funds to subsidize the looting of our national forests instead of providing financial assistance for those most impacted by the pandemic? Add to Donald Trump’s latest executive order declaring an “economic emergency”
so he could suspend the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, and it’s absolutely certain that vast and irreversible environmental destruction will result. There’s a better way to create forest jobs: Pass the Northern Rockies Ecosystem
Protection Act (NREPA). NREPA is now before Congress as H.R. 1321 (House) and S. 827 (Senate). NREPA is a much more sensible way to create forest jobs than subsidizing unregulated clearcutting of our wild public lands. Written by citizens and scientists in
the Northern Rockies, NREPA provides wilderness designation for over 23 million acres of remaining roadless forests, including over 9 million acres of new wilderness areas in Idaho. NREPA would put 2,300 people to work obliterating over 6,300 miles of old
logging roads in wildlife corridors in the Northern Rockies. Maintaining our existing forests and restoring already-logged areas will preserve one of the planet’s most effective carbon sinks to fight global warming and provide what may be our last chance to
keep endangered species from extinction and contribute to our planet’s much-needed recovery from the widespread impacts of extractive industries.”
[Idaho State Journal, 6/12/20]
https://bit.ly/3cXDOjq
Trump administration moves to weaken environmental safeguards for federal construction projects:
“As thousands of Americans collectively grieve Black lives lost to police violence and take to the streets as part of the largest civil rights movement in generations during a still raging pandemic, the Trump administration, via executive order, has put forth
designs to roll back a host of keystone environmental laws and regulations. The nixing of many of these laws further harms underserved communities already disproportionately impacted by polluted air and water. The administration’s reasoning is that by fully
or partially waiving the bureaucratic red tape associated with environmental protections during the coronavirus crisis, economy-bolstering federal construction projects will be streamlined and can move forward at an accelerated pace. While several major environmental
laws, many of them decades-old, would be rolled back and hobbled by Trump’s executive order, chief among them is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a landmark 1970 law signed into existence by Richard Nixon that stipulates that the various agencies
overseeing major infrastructural projects—the construction of highways, airports, oil drilling sites, pipelines, and on—consider the potential environmental impacts of said projects prior to commencing work. As NPR explained: “It requires agencies to examine
the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and consider alternatives. It also gives people a chance to see how a project might affect them and weigh in on what decision the government should make. If a project affects an endangered animal or plant
the Endangered Species Act might also be involved.’”
[Architect News, 6/11/20]
https://bit.ly/2UCDtN3
Environmental law firm threatens suit over Bozeman watershed project: “An environmental
law firm threatened Thursday to file a lawsuit against the Custer Gallatin National Forest over a thinning and burning project planned for the Bozeman and Hyalite creek drainages. John Meyer, attorney with the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, said the
Forest Service’s 2010 environmental review for the Bozeman Municipal Watershed Project is outdated. “Their analysis was wrong to begin with,” Meyer said. “It’s important for our public lands to be managed using science.” Meyer requested Tuesday that Forest
Service officials determine whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires that they update their prior environmental review of the project. Meyer said the firm intends to pursue legal action if Custer Gallatin National Forest officials don’t meet
their demands by June 20, he said. Marna Daley, spokesperson for the Custer Gallatin National Forest, said officials received the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center’s request and are reviewing it. The Bozeman Municipal Watershed Project involves thinning
and burning on around 4,700 acres of land in the Gallatin Range. It was proposed to protect Bozeman’s water supply in the event of a wildfire. The two drainages supply 80% of the city’s water. Though the Custer Gallatin National Forest approved the project
in 2011, work on the project was delayed for nine years due to an injunction in a separate lawsuit. That injunction was lifted this April.”
[Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 6/11/20]
https://bit.ly/2C4cZO5
Judge rules for Forest Service on Lincoln-area project: “A federal judge ruled in favor
of the U.S. Forest Service over a Lincoln-area project challenged by two environmental watchdog groups. In 2019, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed suit over the Willow Creek Vegetation Project. The project includes logging and
prescribed burning on about 2,100 acres in the Willow Creek-Dalton Mountain area about 5 miles southwest of Lincoln. Approval of the project came through a “categorical exclusion” allowed under the 2014 Farm Bill. Through that legislation, Gov. Steve Bullock
nominated and the Forest Service designated nearly 5 million acres of Montana’s forests as impacted by disease or insect infestation. The Forest Service may exclude from full environmental analysis certain projects. But the groups alleged that the agency did
not complete required analysis or allow adequate public input of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act, did not consider cumulative impacts of the project, and did not weigh impacts to potential future wilderness designations in the area.
Alliance Executive Director Mike Garrity said at the time that the quality of wildlife habitat including for the federally protected Canada lynx and grizzly bears were of particular concern. On June 3, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled for the Forest
Service on all counts based on both procedural and merit-based points. The ruling, which also favored the agency on the North Bridgers Project northeast of Bozeman, found that the Forest Service complied with provisions of the Farm Bill and environmental laws
and that the groups had made procedural errors in challenging other legal points.”
[Fairfield Sun Times, 6/11/20]
https://bit.ly/3higz7c
Justin McCarthy
Director, NEPA Campaign
The Partnership Project
1612 K St, NW
Washington, DC 20006 USA
C: (540) 312-3797
E: jmccarthy@partnershipproject.org
The Partnership Project, a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit, is a collaborative effort of over 20 of the country’s most influential advocacy organizations, including Sierra Club, Earthjustice, League of Conservation Voters, and Natural
Resources Defense Council.