Amid a national movement for racial justice and a pandemic thats disproportionately impacting communities of color, the Trump administration has finalized a sweeping overhaul of one of Americas most important environmental laws in order to fast-track infrastructure projects and cut the public out of the democratic review process.

The new rule changes how the federal government implements the National Environmental Policy Act, a 50-year-old law that safeguards air, water and land by requiring federal agencies to conduct detailed environmental assessments of major infrastructure projects. President Donald Trump announced the final rollback during a visit to a UPS facility in Atlanta on Wednesday.

For decades the single biggest obstacle to building a modern transportation system has been the mountains and mountains of bureaucratic red tape in Washington, he said.