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Opponents fault proposal to cut environmental reviews

WASHINGTON (AP) — Describing windows rattled by industrial blasts and windowsills covered in toxic ash, an African American resident of Texas’ oil hub joined Democratic lawmakers, state officials and others Tuesday in urging the Trump administration to drop a proposed rollback that they said would silence disadvantaged communities battling big polluters.

The objections came at the last of two hearings by the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality on its proposal to cut back environmental reviews and restrict public comment on new highways, pipelines and other projects under the 1970 landmark National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

The Trump administration, which has expressed frustration at environmental objections that it says are unnecessarily slowing approval for interstate oil and gas pipelines and other big projects, is proposing restricting the timelines for environmental reviews and public comment. Other changes would explicitly allow businesses a role in crafting the environmental assessments of their projects and allow federal officials to disregard a project’s role in cumulative effects, such as climate change.

Many of those speaking at the Washington hearing in an Interior Department auditorium were African American, Latino and tribal local activists from communities already dealing with pollution from oil refineries, chemical plants, government facilities and other big sources. They credited the half-century-old NEPA with giving poorer communities without much political or economic clout a platform to negotiate with government regulators and big industries.

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