(Beyond Pesticides, November 3, 2025) After a series of legal setbacks for the nation’s cornerstone law of environmental protection, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Beyond Pesticides has joined a call for members of the U.S. Congress to oppose weakening amendments to the statute—H.R. 4776, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act. Environmental advocates say the bill, introduced by U.S. Representatives Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and Jared Golden (D-ME) in July 2025, is a fossil fuel and agriculture industry wish list that will weaken NEPA protections. In recognition of “the profound impact of man’s activity on the interrelations of all components of the natural environment,” NEPA’s statement of purpose “declare[s] a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment.” By requiring environmental assessments (EAs) or environmental impact statements (EISs) for federal actions, it creates a procedural barrier to environmentally damaging proposals.  

The requirements of NEPA go beyond the production of reports. In the process of producing EAs and EISs, NEPA requires the agency to define the purpose and need for the project and examine all reasonable alternatives. This alternatives assessment is a model for environmental policy that should be adopted by agencies regardless of whether it is considering actions that meet NEPA’s thresholds. Imagine what agriculture might look like if pesticide registration required a statement of the purpose and need—not to kill “pests,” but to produce healthful food! And if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had to consider alternatives to chemical-intensive production! It might look like organic agriculture. 

NEPA’s force has already been weakened by a two court decisions. In Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Administration (November 2024), U.S. Court of Appeals, November 2024, (District of Columbia) found that, “The CEQ [Council of Environmental Quality] regulations, which purport to govern how all federal agencies must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, are ultra vires [beyond its legal authority],”  meaning that CEQ does not have rulemaking authority. In Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, the Supreme Court, May 2025,  found that NEPA’s scope is limited to “the agency’s regulatory authority” when affecting a separate project outside its jurisdiction.

In January 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14154, Unleashing American Energy, which requires the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to rescind its regulations and change priorities and analysis. A CEQ memorandum on implementation of NEPA was issued in September 2025. Instead of CEQ regulations, agencies must develop their own guidance for implementing NEPA, eliminating the consistent application of NEPA policy goals. 

The underlying purpose of NEPA was expressed in Calvert Cliffs’ Coordinated Committee v. Atomic Energy Commission, 449 F.2d 1109 (D.C. Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 942 (1972), in which the court found: “NEPA, first of all, makes environmental protection a part of the mandate of every federal agency and department. The Atomic Energy Commission, for example, had continually asserted, prior to NEPA, that it had no statutory authority to concern itself with the adverse environmental effects of its actions.  Now, however, its hands are no longer tied. It is not only permitted, but compelled, to take environmental values into account. Perhaps the greatest importance of NEPA is to require the Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies to consider environmental issues just as they consider other matters within their mandates.“

Changes to NEPA in the SPEED Act could drastically limit public participation, government transparency, and access to legal recourse for affected communities. Some impacts could be:  

• Limiting environmental reviews and their scope.   

• Allowing agencies to disregard new scientific research when making environmental reviews.   

• Imposing barriers to legal challenges of inadequate assessments, thus restricting the ability of courts to stop harmful actions.   

Beyond Pesticides  is joining with people and organizations nationwide, asking members of the U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the SPEED Act. 

U.S. House of Representatives
I urge you to oppose the SPEED Act (H.R. 4776). This bill proposes to gut the National Environmental Policy At (NEPA), our nation’s most important environmental law. For more than 50 years, the NEPA has been a cornerstone of environmental protection in this country. In recognition of “the profound impact of man’s activity on the interrelations of all components of the natural environment,” NEPA’s statement of purpose “declare[s] a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment.” By requiring environmental assessments (EAs) or environmental impact statements (EISs) for federal actions, it creates a procedural barrier to environmentally damaging proposals. Now, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 4776 proposes to weaken NEPA’s protections.

NEPA ensures agencies consider environmental impacts before acting, a protection that is vital for our communities, public health, and the environment. The SPEED Act’s proposed changes to NEPA could drastically limit public participation, government transparency, and access to legal recourse for affected communities. The SPEED Act proposes to seriously limit the type of actions that would trigger environmental review under NEPA while limiting the scope of the reviews, creating accountability blind spots. It could allow agencies to disregard new scientific research when making environmental reviews, thus risking uninformed decisions that harm public health. Furthermore, it could impose extreme barriers to legal challenges of inadequate assessments and restrict the ability of courts to stop harmful projects, shifting power from the public to project developers. 

Thank you.