February 12, 2018

Washington, DC—President Trump introduced a multibillion-dollar infrastructure plan today that would exempt thousands of infrastructure projects from or otherwise weaken critical environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and more than a dozen other protections.

Twenty-eight environmental, conservation and animal welfare organizations, including the Animal Welfare Institute, issued the following joint statement in response:

President Trump’s proposal is an unprecedented giveaway to the wealthy and powerful that would allow his administration and its special interest allies to unilaterally sidestep bedrock conservation, public health, and worker safety laws that keep our families and communities out of harm’s way.

Across the country, Americans remain overwhelmingly opposed to any plan that would sidestep critical environmental and conservation laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. They know we don’t need to hand over our communities to special interests. They know we don’t need to sacrifice our clean air, clean water, wildlife, and iconic lands and waters.

President Trump’s dangerous proposal would hand out massive subsidies for wealthy developers to build roads and bridges without any regard to the impacts of hurricanes, fires, or rising seas. Taxpayers have repeatedly built and rebuilt many of the buildings and roads destroyed by disasters such as Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma. To continue rebuilding over and over again without taking common-sense, proactive measures to address climate change isn’t just short-sighted—it’s expensive and dangerous.

America badly needs an infrastructure upgrade. Horrifying events like the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which exposed over 100,000 Americans to high levels of lead in their drinking water, are proof enough of that. But President Trump’s proposal does nothing to address real issues like Flint. Instead, by rubberstamping permits for corporations to build oil pipelines and toxic waste dumps, gutting environmental and labor laws, and severely limiting the public’s ability to hold government accountable, it will only make our communities—and our nation—a more dangerous place.