WWA
Apr 16, 2026
In a joint letter along with seventy-two other organizations, WWA calls on Congress to reject “permitting reform” that targets bedrock environmental laws and elevates resource extraction over conservation as the de facto dominant use of public lands.
The Wyoming Wilderness Association (WWA), along with seventy-two other organizations and their combined 2.6 million members and supporters, delivered a joint letter to Senate Minority Leader Schumer (NY), Sen. Heinrich (NM), Sen. Whitehouse (RI), and House Minority Leader Jeffries today demanding that they reject their pursuit of “permitting reform” that targets environmental laws and elevates resource extraction over conservation as the de facto dominant use of public lands.
WWA stands committed to calling out Congress’ “permitting reform” for what it is: an undercutting of bedrock laws that have protected our environment and pristine wildlands for generations.
The primary target of this legislation is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires agencies to:
Take a hard look at impacts to people, communities, and the environment and disclose those impacts to the public.
Consider alternatives to avoid and mitigate harm.
Provide for public involvement.
In December 2025, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act (H.R. 4776) passed the House and is now pending in the Senate. The SPEED Act would:
Arbitrarily narrow the scope of environmental reviews, paving the way for unchecked resource extraction without proper consideration of environmental and community impacts.
Permit agencies to ignore new scientific or technical research when preparing an environmental review and thereby risk decisions that harm the public interest.
Eviscerate the public’s right to seek justice and accountability in federal court.
These changes would reduce environmental review to a paperwork exercise, limit judicial accountability to the point of meaninglessness, unacceptably erode community and environmental safeguards, exclude the public from federal decision making, and diminish the transparency and accountability now required of government agencies by federal law.
Importantly, proponents of “permitting reform” have also signaled strong interest in changing other critical environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Historical Preservation Act. These proposals effectively neutralize environmental and community protections to accelerate permit approvals for energy, technology, and other infrastructure—primarily climate-harming fossil fuels.
WWA is specifically concerned with how this “permitting reform” would impact Wyoming’s public wildlands, which, while rugged and beautiful, are also fragile. As WWA Executive Director Aaron Bannon states: “With so many areas in our state still in need of added protections, rolling back such a fundamental law as the National Environmental Policy Act would be a move in the wrong direction.”
WWA, along with the co-signers of the letter, are therefore asking Congress to stand in defense of climate action and the public lands, waters and wildlife, and communities of the West, and to work to build trust and set the conditions for constructive legislation that strengthens and revitalizes the federal government’s capacity to serve the public interest, including and especially by fully integrating ecological and community considerations into climate and energy policy.
The full joint letter is available here. Western Environmental Law Center’s press release on the issue can be found here.