East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, January 14, 2020, Image 2

East Oregonian : E.O., January 14, 2020, Page 2, Image 2

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Newspaper Page TextNORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Trump’s environmental policy rollback affects the Northwest By CASSANDRA PROFITA Oregon Public Broadcasting SALEM — A new Trump administration plan to scale back a bedrock environmen- tal law could affect all kinds of projects in the North- west, including timber sales, hydroelectric dams, and large energy developments like the controversial Jor- dan Cove liqueﬁ ed natural gas project with its 235-mile Paciﬁ c Connector pipeline. On Thursday, the Trump administration announced major changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regula- tions with the stated goal of accelerating the approval process for infrastructure projects. The proposal’s critics in the Northwest say the new rules are undemocratic and illegal, and many are hop- ing they will be challenged in court and thrown out. NEPA requires the fed- eral government to review the environmental impacts of major projects before approving them. The reviews analyze projects’ impacts on air and water quality, wildlife, and other natural resources. They’re also required to consider alternatives that would have fewer impacts. The administration’s reg- OPB Photo/Cassandra Proﬁ ta Fish advocates say sending water through spill bays is the best way to ensure ﬁ sh survival through dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers. ulatory changes put new time and page limits on the federal government’s envi- ronmental reviews, reduce opportunities for pub- lic input and allow some projects to be completely excluded from the review process. A new category of projects with “minimal federal funding or involve- ment” wouldn’t require any kind of environmental assessment. While the regulations don’t change the law itself, they dramatically change how the law would be imple- mented by federal agencies. In its announcement, the administration said the cur- rent NEPA regulations have hampered the approval of projects involving roads, bridges, airports, railways and waterways, and that the changes will “modernize” the 50-year-old law so that new projects can be built in a “timely, efﬁ cient and afford- able manner.” U.S. Sens. Maria Can- twell, D-Wash., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., were quick to slam the proposal for excluding climate change as one of the environmen- tal impacts agencies would need to consider under NEPA. “NEPA has provided generations of Americans a say in federal decisions that impact the air we breathe, the water we drink and the pub- lic lands we cherish,” Can- twell said in a statement. “This NEPA rewrite favors big polluters and corporate proﬁ ts over balanced, sci- ence-based decision-mak- ing and would prevent Wash- ingtonians from voicing their views.” Tom Buchele, a profes- sor of environmental law at Lewis and Clark Law WEDNESDAY Colder with a snow shower around Cloudy and cold 28° 18° 33° 29° THURSDAY FRIDAY Very cold; morning snow SATURDAY Chilly with clouds and sun Overcast with a little snow PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 33° 20° 40° 27° 36° 29° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 33° 23° 35° 28° 35° 24° 40° 34° 38° 31° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 29/28 22/14 27/16 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 25/18 Lewiston 30/28 28/19 Astoria 34/29 Pullman Yakima 20/13 27/25 33/19 Portland Hermiston 35/28 The Dalles 33/23 Salem Corvallis 34/27 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 33/14 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 35/26 32/16 33/12 Ontario 39/12 Caldwell Burns 40° 26° 41° 28° 60° (1945) -12° (2017) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 34/27 0.12" 0.13" 0.53" 0.13" 0.18" 0.53" Today Boardman Pendleton Medford 41/29 BAKER CITY — A Baker High School student is in the custody of juve- nile authorities on a charge of first-de- gree disorderly conduct after he allegedly made threats to shoot people at the school and to take his own life. The 16-year-old boy was arrested at 1:39 a.m. Monday, Baker City Police Chief Ray Duman stated in a press release. The investigation began at 11:39 p.m. Sunday when the Baker County Dispatch Center received a call from a national suicide hotline stating that the boy had called the hotline and detailed his plans. Police began the investigation after determining the call had been made from Baker City, Duman said. The suicide hotline provided officers with the cell- phone number used to make the call. The number was traced to the boy’s home, and then to a different location where the phone was found and the boy was taken into custody. “The officers did a good job of recog- nizing the situation and dealing with it accordingly,” Duman said this morning. A Juvenile Court counselor trans- 34/15 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020 North Powder man killed in avalanche while snowmobiling in Elkhorns BAKER CITY — A North Powder man died Saturday afternoon when his snowmobile was hit by an avalanche high in the Elkhorn Mountains. Richard Delbert Stephens, 33, of the North Powder area, was trapped in the snow slide, according to Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash. Ash said Stephens and three oth- ers were riding snowmobiles in the upper parts of the Rock Creek drainage when the avalanche happened, trapping Stephens. None of the other three riders, who were friends or relatives of Stephens, were hurt, Ash said. Baker County Dispatch received a call about the accident at 6:04 p.m. Ash, who was attending the Baker County Chamber of Commerce awards banquet, said he immediately mobilized a Search and Rescue team. — EO Media Group Wed. E 4-8 WNW 6-12 NE 6-12 SSE 8-16 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls ported the boy to the Northern Oregon Regional Corrections juvenile detention center at The Dalles. Baker High student arrested for phone threat WINDS (in mph) 40/19 30/3 0.13" 0.41" 0.72" 0.41" 0.12" 0.72" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 31/12 32/27 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 28/18 39/21 37° 32° 41° 27° 70° (1923) -8° (2017) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 28/26 Aberdeen 17/11 17/10 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 27/26 fact they’re doing ﬁ ve things that together will have big impacts,” Buchele said. The new regulations would also exempt con- ﬁ ned animal feeding opera- tions that have federal loans or loan guarantees, Buchele said, and they would intro- duce a bond requirement for anyone trying to get the court to halt a federal action. “That’s huge,” he said. “If there’s a bond requirement imposed on small environ- mental groups it’s going to keep them from going into court.” Buchele said the changes might not affect projects that have already gone through the NEPA process, such as the Jordan Cove LNG proj- ect and Paciﬁ c Connector pipeline. Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the environmental nonproﬁ t Columbia Riverkeeper, said NEPA is responsible for key government analyses of envi- ronmental impacts of oil and coal terminals proposed in the Northwest and dam oper- ations in the Columbia River Basin. “By requiring agencies to disclose the impacts of these projects to the people, it leads to better decisions,” he said. “Sometimes it leads to proj- ects changing. Sometimes it leads to projects being denied.” BRIEFLY Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY School, said the new regula- tions make “anti-democratic changes” that will reduce the amount of information the government needs to dis- close about its projects and discourage the public from participating in the environ- mental review process. “No one likes to admit publicly that they’re going to do something that’s going to have a really adverse effect or is going to hurt the environ- ment,” he said. “Agencies do change what they’re propos- ing because it looks like the impacts are going to be bad.” Buchele said he was stunned to see that the new regulations eliminate the need for agencies to review the “cumulative effects” of their actions. That could exclude climate change con- siderations from NEPA reviews, he said, but it also would affect things like how the U.S. Forest Service reviews the environmental impacts of its timber sales on nearby watersheds. If the agency has more than one timber sale in a watershed, NEPA would normally require the agency to review the cumulative impacts of all of its timber sales on that watershed. “It prevents the agency from splitting things up and saying, ‘Well this thing that we’re doing here is not going to have an effect,’ when in Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818. 7:33 a.m. 4:36 p.m. 9:36 p.m. 10:20 a.m. Last New First Full Jan 17 Jan 24 Feb 1 Feb 8 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 87° in McAllen, Texas Low -18° in Cut Bank, Mont. JUST RELEASED NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY UMATILLA COUNT Y MEMORIES Hardcover book Limited supply $44.95 plus tax & shipping Heirloom quality, 144 pages • Historic photos of Umatilla County from the mid-1800s through 1939 • Books are selling quickly — order yours today! Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Oﬃ ce hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. 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