The Great God Efficiency is no excuse to abolish public input and harm public health, safety, and wildlife habitats.
This objection letter may or may not have much effect, but we can be sure that not objecting would grease the railroad these rules changes are riding on.
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters nationwide, the 135 undersigned organizations write in strong opposition to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Interim Final Rules Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act for its civil works (COE-2025-007) and regulatory (COE-2025-006) programs. These rules will silence public input, erode public health and safety, and harm vital and cherished wildlife habitats across the country.
These Interim Final Rules bear no relation to improving efficiencies in project delivery. To the contrary, they will lead to inefficient, inconsistent, and inadequate NEPA reviews that will further undermine agency decision-making and the public’s trust in project decisions. The Interim Final Rules functionally repeal essential NEPA protections, including eliminating the most basic safeguards for meaningful public input. They make a mockery of the Corps’ stated purpose of aligning the NEPA regulations with current law.1 And they fail to provide any guidance at all on multiple, critical NEPA requirements.
You can read the reasons in the PDF. Images of each page are below.
Withdraw both Interim Final Rules about NEPA –many to USACE, August 4, 2025
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For at least the reasons highlighted above, our organizations urge the Corps to withdraw both Interim Final Rules, and in their place issue regulations that properly implement the National Environmental Policy Act.