Flawed environmental justice analyses

Because poor and minority communities have long been excluded from environmental decision-making (2), all federal agencies must now identify and address environmental justice issues during formal assessments and reviews of projects such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (3). Such projects can have wide-ranging impacts on human communities associated with land rights and property values, public safety in the event of leaks and explosions, and regional climate change exacerbated by fugitive methane emissions (4) and combustion of natural gas.

In addition to these issues, Native American tribes have unique concerns deriving from their status as indigenous peoples. Tribes have deep connections to ancestral and modern-day territories, and these connections are often important to tribal concepts of identity, history, culture, spirituality, and governance. Sacred sites, archaeological resources, and natural features integrate to form cultural landscapes that are unique to each tribe.