Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, welcomed the Biden administration’s decision to restore stricter environmental regulations on infrastructure projects. In 2020, the Trump administration scaled back the regulations.

Citing Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ , Archbishop Coakley said that the Biden administration’s decision “is an opportunity to design infrastructure projects that promote authentic human development and stewardship of creation.”