A group of Republican senators has penned a letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), demanding a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review on President Joe Biden’s plan to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030.
The 30×30 plan, also known as the America the Beautiful initiative, has been a controversial measure among Republican leaders and the agriculture industry, with concerns raised about how land and water rights will be impacted.
In a May 11 letter, 21 Republican senators alleged the Biden administration has not properly analyzed the program’s public and environmental impact, as required by NEPA.
“We are calling on you to refrain from any actions in the furtherance of 30×30 until a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) has been completed and the legal authority under which this major federal program is proceeding has been disclosed,” the letter read.
The letter noted that governors from 15 states wrote to Biden in April 2021 to express their concern regarding the new program and “rightly emphasized” 30×30 will impact the productive use of hundreds of millions of acres of land and harm local economies while infringing on private property rights. The senators said more than a year later, the governors’ basic questions about the plan’s implementation have yet to be answered.
The letter concluded with the senators asking the government to comply with NEPA before proceeding any further with the 30×30 plan, as the process would “facilitate development and disclosure of the program’s details and support informed public participation, as well as satisfying public disclosure obligations.”
“Without full disclosure of the details of the 30×30 program, its environmental, budgetary, and legal impacts remain unknown and the public is left in the dark,” the letter read. “This is hardly the open and transparent process the administration promised.”
The senators request a written response from the CEQ providing a statement of the legal authority by which the program is authorized. If the CEQ determines a PEIS is not required, the senators also request a written explanation for how the program is exempt from NEPA requirements by June 15.
The letter was signed by the following Republican senators: Kevin Cramer (ND), Roger Marshall (KS), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Chuck Grassley (IA), Cynthia Lummis (WY), James Risch (ID), John Hoeven (ND), Bill Cassidy (LA), Mike Crapo (ID), Mike Rounds (SD), James Inhofe (OK), Mitt Romney (UT), Jerry Moran (KS), Dan Sullivan (AK), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Joni Ernst (IA), Deb Fischer (NE), James Lankford (OK), John Thune (SD), John Cornyn (TX) and Ted Cruz (TX). — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
