Trump Administration Trashes Public Protections in Permitting Process: “Reckless Deregulation at Its Worst”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has revoked the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) regulations that guide federal environmental reviews, ending nearly 50 years of precedent. These regulations provided clarity, consistency, and efficiency in how federal agencies assess the environmental impacts of their decisions. Each agency will now be forced to interpret their obligations under the law on their own creating uncertainty, delays, and legal risk in the federal permitting process.

Following is a reaction from Kabir Green, director of federal affairs in the Nature program at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“NEPA is the cornerstone of our environmental protections. These regulations ensured informed, science-based decisions that protect communities and the environment. Stripping them away, while hollowing out federal agencies, will leave agencies directionless, chaotic, and without accountability for upholding the public trust. This isn’t streamlining—it’s reckless deregulation at its worst. This move is just the latest gift from the Trump administration to Big Oil and other special interests. This administration has spent its first month in power ruthlessly dismantling public protections and sidelining those responsible for enforcing them."

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).