President Trump signed an executive order Thursday waiving environmental laws to speed up federal permits for highways, mines, pipelines and other infrastructure, citing the economic distress from the coronavirus shutdown as a national emergency.

The order would allow builders and developers to sidestep long-held requirements under such laws as the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, regulatory measures that have long been the bane of conservatives. The order comes after days of bruising headlines for the president, including criticism from conservative leaders and conservative media for his handling of racial violence, while he continues to be sidelined from campaigning for president.

“The Trump administration using a global pandemic as cover to undermine our health and safety continues their assault on bedrock protections the public supports,” Kelly Nordini, the executive director of Conservation Colorado said in a statement Thursday afternoon. 

“The National Environmental Policy Act is the basis for so many of the protections we rely upon to protect the air, lands, waters, and communities we cherish and our public health and safety will suffer if they are successful in gutting this critical policy.”

NEPA, as it’s more commonly called, calls in rigorous environmental review for energy projects, especially oil and gas drilling or pipeline construction.

When the administration proposed softening NEPA rules this year, one of two public hearings on the changes was held in Denver in February.

“While the National Environmental Policy Act needs to be streamlined, especially to end costly delays for renewable energy projects, it is the bedrock of ensuring that our country protects our air that we breathe, the water we drink and our precious natural resources – and to ensure that all communities have a voice,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement Friday. “Coloradans deserve to be consulted and listened to on projects that impact us.

“The Trump administration’s actions to gut these core protections without so much as going through a process of notice and hearing comments is simply out of touch and would severely undercut vital protections to public health and our environment. We will examine all our legal options to ensure they the voice of Coloradans are heard.”

Separately, on Thursday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed changes to rulemaking under the Clean Air Act to establish “requirements to ensure consistent, high-quality analyses of benefits and costs are provided to the public for significant rules.”

The Trump administration provided quotes from supportive Republican officials.

“Balancing necessary environmental safeguards and promoting responsible development of critical infrastructure necessary for economic growth are not mutually exclusive,” U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton of Cortez stated. “The costs of federal regulations should be well understood by the public before rules are implemented. EPA is taking appropriate action to ensure all parties impacted by federal rules have an opportunity to weigh the full costs and benefits of those rules. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress and the Administration on legislative fixes to create similar approaches to restoring federal regulatory clarity across the board and ensuring taxpayers know full well the cost of regulating critical industries in their communities.”

State and local officials also were quoted.

Mesa County, Commissioner Rose Femia Pugliese said, “Throughout my years as a Mesa County, Colorado Commissioner, I have watched as our regional economies have suffered due to the imposition of federal regulations without consideration of the impact of these decisions on businesses and on our communities. I welcome this change as it will provide much needed transparency and data to the current process.”

Sen. John Cooke of Greeley said, “My career choice was law enforcement, and I rose to be sheriff of Weld County. Over the years I saw huge cost increases due to layers of unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. Your steps will provide greater transparency and save local governments, farms, and small businesses from burdensome delays. It will also provide needed protections for landowners, farmers and ranchers, the people working in the oil and gas industry, as well as those in other sectors, who will now be afforded a full understanding of the costs and benefits of new regulations as they seek to keep Colorado working.”

Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling said, “America’s farmers and ranchers have for years been under the thumb of federal rules and regulations that were put in place without any thought given whatsoever to the impact they would have on the livelihoods of thousands of people. The Waters of the U.S. rule was one of the most egregious examples, but is only one of possibly hundreds. Requiring a cost-benefit analysis be completed before imposing any further regulation is simply good common sense, and will go a long way towards helping the federal government be a partner, rather than an adversary, to American agriculture.”

Sen. Rob Woodward of Loveland said, “The EPA and other federal regulations have all to often been imposed without any consideration of the economic costs. In northern Colorado, as elsewhere, this has resulted in costly and unnecessary delays of important public and private projects, including transportation infrastructure. The new rule will ensure that the proper balance is struck between necessary environmental protections and equally necessary economic development.”

Rep. Matt Soper of Delta said, “I salute the EPA’s work to bring the US in line with other industrialized nations, while vigorously protecting our environment. As a rural Western Colorado legislator, whose district has a vibrant tourism industry, natural resource industry, and small business community, I salute the move to a cost-benefit analysis approach.”

This story was updated to add a comment from the governor.