One of Tri-Valley CAREs mottos is “speaking truth to power.” But when the power is concentrated behind closed-doors in Washington, DC and inside a classified nuclear weapons laboratory, carrying out this motto is a challenge.
Few opportunities exist for members of the public, directly-affected communities, local government officials, or even state regulators to officially express opinions and comments on federal government plans, especially plans about its nuclear weapons research and development programs. However, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 created the requirement that all federal plans that may cause a significant impact to the environment must prepare a report (and Environmental Impact Statement) that analyzes the impacts of the plan and must take public comments on that analysis. In addition, the agency is required to respond to the comments in writing in its final EIS.
Tri-Valley CAREs, and many other public advocacy and environmental organizations, including similar organizations in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, have used the public comment requirement of NEPA to activate the public and create successful opposition movements to dangerous, proliferation-provacative nuclear weapons plans. NEPA itself does not have any “teeth,” meaning no matter how extreme potentially identified environmental or human health impacts of a government proposal might be, the agency is allowed to move forward as long as it takes and responds to public comment. Public commenting has become a tool to catalyze public opposition. The response to comments get weak government rationales or reasonings on the record which gives the public some power to challenge programs that should not move forward.
This part of the advocacy toolbox is coming under bipartisan pressure. The resulting movement, commonly referred to as “permitting reform” has NEPA in its crosshairs as well as other foundational environmental laws. And it resonates inside the closed doors of Livermore Lab, where lack of public scrutiny opens the doors to expanded nuclear weapons programs and truckloads of money.
President Trump has fast tracked weakening NEPA on his first day in office with Executive Order 14154, We previously wrote about the ways in which it was being used to gut environmental laws, and more specifically, to push through enhanced plutonium utilization, increasing the allowable amount of plutonium, at Livermore Lab without a public Draft Supplemental EIS or public input.
In response, Tri-Valley CAREs has been reaching out to partner organizations working to challenge this “permitting reform” push. We recently joined an organizational advocacy letter, alongside various other environmental organizations, urging Congress to reject permitting reform legislation that weakens environmental protections and limits public participation.
This letter reflects a growing concern that proposed changes to the environmental review process under NEPA are both misguided and actively harmful, prioritizing the interests of Big Technology and Energy over the safety and well-being of communities, ecosystems, and the democratic process. Instead of capitulating to energy and technology industry demands and the Trump administration’s deliberately engineered regulatory chaos, this letter calls for acknowledgement of root causes of project delays under NEPA, such as inadequate agency funding and resources as well as poor interagency coordination. The letter emphasizes that with the Trump administration at the helm, it is highly unlikely that any type of permitting reform in this current moment will lead to an increase in renewable energy projects.
Additionally, Tri-Valley CAREs has contacted California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, emphasizing broader concerns about permitting reform and how attacks on NEPA are putting directly affected communities living around Livermore Lab at risk from its plan to “enhance plutonium utilization” without drafting or circulating the promised Draft SEIS.
We noted in our correspondence with Senators Padilla and Schiff that this marks a significant departure from decades of established NEPA practice, where communities have historically had a guaranteed opportunity to review and respond to proposed federal actions that were likely to have a significant impact on the human environment.
The current situation with enhanced plutonium utilization at Livermore Lab is a concrete example of the broader dangers posed by congressional permitting reform legislation. Across the country, such reforms have garnered widespread bipartisan support, framed as necessary to accelerate energy and infrastructure development. However, in practice, these reforms simply weaken the very laws designed to protect people and the environment, and will allow for the fossil fuel and technology industries to complete new, environmentally degrading projects, largely unchecked.
Rather than serving as a check on such degradation, Congress has consistently reinforced it over the last year. The 2025 Reconciliation Bill, passed with language that elevated resource extraction over conservation, and the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, which recently passed in the House, both constitute reinforcement of the Trump administration’s desire to rollback environmental protections and safeguards.
Instead of weakening environmental laws, Congress should invest in strengthening agency funding, improving interagency coordination, and ensuring that federal agencies have adequate resources to complete environmental assessments both thoroughly, and timely. Most importantly, Congress must reaffirm the public’s right to participate in decisions about federal projects that significantly affect their safety and well-being.
Both the organizational sign on letter, along with its press release, and Tri-Valley CAREs’ letter to Senators Padilla and Schiff are attached below. Tri-Valley CAREs remains committed to advocating for policies that protect our community, our environment, and our right to public participation with regards to proposed federal actions.
CA Senator Letter on Permitting Reform