Waterkeeper Alliance Applauds the Reinstatement of Environmental Review of Financing of Industrial Animal Agriculture Facilities

Waterkeeper Alliance applauds the actions of The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to reverse some of the worst impacts of the previous administration’s changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, which require federal agencies to assess the health, economic, and environmental impacts of proposed federal actions in the decision-making process.

“NEPA is foundational to our country’s environmental laws and Waterkeeper Alliance welcomes the Biden administration’s efforts to ensure the policy aligns with its original intent,” said Patience Burke, Waterkeeper Alliance’s Pure Farms, Pure Waters Campaign Manager. Without the transparency provided by NEPA’s environmental review, communities may not even be aware of decisions that could negatively impact their lives and livelihoods until it’s too late to respond. By addressing climate impacts and removing exemptions for polluting industries, these essential regulations can safeguard vulnerable communities, ensuring public voices are heard in the process.”

The newly released Phase 2 rule restores the regulations to their original, common-sense intent, while providing critical environmental justice tools that help communities hold polluting industries accountable. For example, the new rule restores an important safeguard related to the federal financing of new and expanding Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) and slaughterhouses.

Under previous NEPA regulations, federal agencies were required to assess and make public the environmental impacts of new or expanding industrial animal agriculture facilities before federal funding was approved. In 2020, the CEQ changed the regulations to deliberately single out and exempt certain federal funding for AFOs and slaughterhouses from NEPA review, allowing the government to continue supporting the industrial animal agriculture industry without accounting for any of its environmental impacts or informing the public. Waterkeeper Alliance challenged this NEPA provision and previously called on CEQ to restore the law to ensure that federal financing of the industry receives proper environmental review.