Press Releases

Santa Barbara, CA – Congressman Carbajal issued the following statement on Facebook and Twitter on President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing agencies to waive environmental reviews of development projects in light of the current economic downturn:

“It is unnerving that the President is exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to undo decades of bipartisan progress in order to further pollute our public lands, water, and air.

“Waiving requirements for public input and environmental impact reports does nothing to save our cities, counties, and states from bankruptcy. This order is clearly aimed at giving corporate interests the green light to trample on our public health and environment for short lived economic gain.

“The public deserves to have a say in, and knowledge of, the impacts development projects will have on their environment and community. The Central Coast has been impacted by oil spills and other preventable disasters. We know first-hand what happens when environmental impacts are bypassed in pursuit of corporate interests.

“There is no Planet B. Scrapping 50 years of environmental protections to bolster the oil and gas lobby is not worth it and brings us no closer to economic recovery.”