APA and ASFPM Statement on Final NEPA Regulation Changes

Joint Statement of the American Planning Association and the Association of State Floodplain Managers on Changes to Federal NEPA Regulations

Today's decision from the Trump administration on environmental reviews takes the nation in the wrong direction. These changes make us less able to tackle the climate crisis, less able to make our communities resilient, and less able to understand the needs of communities that have long suffered from environmental injustice.

Americans need not choose between efficient infrastructure development and a healthy, safe, prosperous, and just future. That is a false choice. Far from expediting projects, the approach announced today only adds cost, uncertainty, and risk.

Planners and floodplain managers share the goal of making project reviews timelier. Reform can be achieved while improving the ability to make thoughtful, informed decisions about the future that don't saddle taxpayers with repeated disasters, increased risk, escalating climate impacts, and deepened racial inequities.

We can advance projects while also hearing the needs and healing the wounds that afflict vulnerable communities.

We can, we must, do better.