FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 18, 2010
CONTACT: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384
New Guidance on Climate Change to Improve
National Environmental Policy Act
Washington, D.C.--The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today issued three new draft guidance documents with regards to the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, which has now been protecting our environment for 40 years. In addition to the draft guidance on global warming emissions and climate change, CEQ also issued guidance on mitigation and monitoring and establishing and applying categorical exclusions. Full details on all three are available at: http://bit.ly/clfwZB
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
"The National Environmental Policy Act is one our nation's most important and most successful environmental laws. It's very encouraging to see that after 40 years of success in protecting our environment, the Obama administration is adapting the law to help it better address the greatest environmental challenge of today--climate change. Given the impacts of global warming pollution, considering these emissions under NEPA is clearly the right thing to do.
"Before today's draft guidance on climate change is finalized, we urge the administration to further expand its scope to address global warming emissions and climate change impacts relating to America's public lands in addition to the already-covered federal projects.
"NEPA has worked well for forty years. The overwhelming success of the Recovery Act shows that we can create jobs and grow the economy, while still applying the essential environmental protections enshrined in the National Environmental Policy Act. Some people have been attempting to kill NEPA since its creation and they continue to use nearly any excuse to try and weaken, curtail, or eliminate it, but the Recovery Act's success should put an end to these arguments once and for all."
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