National Environmental Policy Act

Um, [smacks lips] hey, uh, the- to- turning to another issue that affects, uh, America's economy really is the, the permitting process for all kinds of things.

And, you know, NEPA is part of that process, and most Americans don't really know what that is.

Um, what is NEPA and, you know, how does it help or hurt the process in your view?

Well, you know, NEPA was, uh, enacted in, uh...

NEPA stands for, uh, National Environmental Policy Act.

The act-

Mm-hmm

I mean, who doesn't wanna save the species? The difficulty you have is, like all things government, there was no, uh, last paragraph that said, "Oh, and by the way, when you e- uh, when you, uh, enable this, please use common sense." Uh-

We are proud to announce today that the federal district court issued a preliminary injunction late Friday night halting the project.

A federal judge found ICE failed to follow the National Environmental Policy Act, saying there was no proof that the federal government conducted an environmental analysis before construction.

So while the lawsuit filed by the attorneys for the state of California and County of Santa Clara plays out, work on the proposed facility is legally halted.

Today, construction is stopped because no administration, no matter how powerful, should be able to come into a community, bypass the rules meant to protect the people and the environment, and simply tell local governments to get out of the way.

And so you had states adopting environmental review provisions for new housing projects.

And the federal government adopted its NEPA, National Environmental Policy Act.

And so the mentality then, the political mentality, was just stop growth.

know don't let people build we've done you know there's been too much development it's kind of anti-human you know an anti-human variant of environmentalism this is also why we don't manage forests and or didn't for decades because humans are bad let's just leave the forest alone and they will manage themselves and that caused massive wildfires So, you know, that was the mentality back then.

A federal administrative court has temporarily revoked authorization to build a massive data center near Boulder City, Nevada, concluding the federal government likely erred when it approved the project construction on public land without a proper environmental analysis.

The Interior Board of Appeals ruled that the Bureau of Land Management's decision to approve the construction of the town site data center on public land using a prior unrelated environmental analysis likely violated the National Environmental Policy Act.

The order comes after the Center for Biological Diversity in Boulder City filed an appeal in July against the Townside Data Center, which became the first data center approved on BLM land in the United States.

An administrative judge determined there was persuasive evidence that BLM, the Bureau of Land Management, acted arbitrarily or capriciously when it determined that the data center project is substantially the same as the solar project for purposes of an EPA analysis.

Last week the FCC announced that it's preparing to vote on changes to its environmental review process for permitting at its September 30th meeting.

The proposal would align the Commission's rules with changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, including the threshold for what qualifies as a major federal action.

The FCC says more than 14,800 wireless deployments would no longer face its existing NEPA checklist.

A further notice would seek comment on Historic Preservation Review, making this a broader discussion about which projects require federal scrutiny.

Last week, the FCC announced that it's preparing to vote on changes to its environmental review process for permitting at its September thirtieth meeting.

The proposal would align the commission's rules with changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, including the threshold for what qualifies as a major federal action.

The FCC says more than fourteen thousand eight hundred wireless deployments would no longer face its existing NEPA checklist.

A further notice would seek comment on historic preservation review, making this a broader discussion about which projects require federal scrutiny.

We're seeing deregulation in a way that deeply favors certain corporate players in public lands.

So not only are they deregulating and taking away, trying to roll back NEPA requirements, National Environmental Policy Act, or not following kind of FLTMA procedure when the public is supposed to be able to provide feedback on this stuff.

We're seeing something go even further, deregulation in favor of mining companies, oil companies, and these other big players, and the system rebuilt to favor them.

So it's almost one step further than deregulation into – a different kind of economy that our nation probably hasn't seen since World War II in the way that it favors sort of corporate power.