Your voice to protect wild horses, the environment and public health is under attack. Will you have a voice in what happens to wild horses in the future?
Many wild horse advocates do not think of wild horses as a part of public land management. Wild horses are the only animal in our nation defined by the land they stand, not what they are biologically. This makes them extremely vulnerable to any changes in the way the land is managed.
“Wild horses” have many areas of discussion and debate, most of those debates occur after a wild horse is slated for removal. A roundup, adoption, sale or slaughter threats all come after the decision to remove. The decision to remove is a part land management.
Your voice is important. It is critical that you understand how to use it… and that you may lose it.
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8/20/2018
Wild Horse Education Joins 341 Public Interest Orgs to Protect NEPA; Environment, Public Health and Public Voice
On August 20, 2018 a coalition letter was sent in response to the proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA regulations) representing a collective of 341 public interest organizations, representing millions of members and supporters, to the Council on Environmental Quality’s recent Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM). An earlier joint letter was sent to extend the comment period to 60 days, from the proposed 30, successfully.
On June 20, 2018, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced plans to revise CEQ’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA regulations). This is one of the most severe attacks on our environment, public health, and right to public participation we have seen to date from the Trump administration.
NEPA is the essential process of law that allows communities to participate in process to protect themselves and their environment from dangerous, rushed or poorly planned federal projects. Often this process is the only opportunity for public involvement.
“The list of organizations is in truth a representation of the heart of NEPA intention; big and small, we are a part of the process and must be considered. As a voice for a public lands interest, wild horses, that is often excluded, it is an honor to be a part of this effort to protect that public interest,” Laura Leigh, President of Wild Horse Education
It is important to emphasis that under this Congress alone there have been over 100 attacks on the NEPA process.
Changes include:
- Restrictions on public input: The right of citizens to meaningfully weigh in on federal decisions impacting their communities is the most important guarantee of the current CEQ regulations. This notice strongly suggests CEQ intends to limit the public’s ability to participate in federal decision-making.
- Potential Conflicts of Interest: Applicants could be allowed to prepare their own environmental impact statements, thus eliminating objective analyses about the environmental and related social and economic effects of their proposal.
- Imposition of hard deadlines for project approval: Establishing hard deadlines for project approval regardless of project size, complexity, and impact or the degree of public controversy over a proposal.
- Inappropriate categorical exclusions and waivers on environmental review: When used correctly, Categorical Exclusions (CEs) can streamline the approval of actions that a federal agency has researched and demonstrated do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. When used inappropriately, CEs can be used to steamroll public concerns and capitulate to corporate interests that elevate their profits over the public interest.
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