Search results for: NEPA

On Tuesday, March 10, the comment period closed on the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to update its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

CEQ published its proposed rule on January 10, 2020 (see January 15, 2020 edition of the Environmental Law & Policy Monitor). CEQ’s proposed rule aims to update its regulations—which have not been modified since they were released in 1978—by streamlining the NEPA process and instituting changes to reduce delays and paperwork, and modifying the scope of agencies review of proposed actions.

On January 10, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published the long-awaited proposed rule to amend its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).  The statute, sometimes pejoratively referred to as a “paper-tiger,” requires a federal agency to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of certain proposed projects, but does not mandate any particular outcome.

On June 21, 2019, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a new draft guidance redefining the process federal agencies will use to evaluate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In marked contrast to GHG guidance issued by CEQ under the Obama Administration in 2016, the draft guidance encourages federal agencies undertaking NEPA review to follow the “rule of reason” and use their “expertise and experience” to decide whether and to what degree the agency will analyze particular effects of GHG emissions. Therefore, the draft guidance moves to a more deferential approach to agency review under NEPA than the Obama Administration’s prescriptive guidance. The draft guidance will be published in the Federal Register for public review and comment. If finalized, it will replace the Obama Administration’s 2016 guidance, which was withdrawn effective April 5, 2017, after President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 13783, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth.” 

  • The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service issued a final rule rescinding the definition of “harm” from ESA regulations at 50 C.F.R. § 17.3 and 50 C.F.R. § 222.102, eliminating the long-standing regulatory interpretation that habitat modification resulting in death or injury of listed
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A March 30, 2026, decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Department of the Interior, vacated key provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations, including several regulations from 2019 that were revised and/or reissued in 2024. This ruling arrives amid a swirl of potential changes to implementation of the ESA, and signals that courts will be closely scrutinizing forthcoming regulations for consistency with a statute that has long been labeled the “pit bull” of environmental statutes.

On January 8, 2026, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finalized 57 Nationwide Permits first proposed in June of last year. Nationwide Permits (NWPs) are streamlined federal permits for activities that affect waters of the United States, ranging from routine development and infrastructure projects to major projects. In this action…

During the week of July 28, the Trump administration unleashed a new burst of actions aimed squarely at blocking wind and solar energy with the announcement of two new secretarial orders (SO) and three new policies by the Department of the Interior (DOI), plus one from the Department of Transportation (DOT). These latest measures follow on the heels of the recent internal directive from DOI Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Gregory Wischer implementing three new levels of political review for a comprehensive list of approvals, consultations, and interim steps in the permitting processes for wind and solar projects with a nexus to DOI’s regulatory authority. Although couched in terms of curbing “preferential treatment” for wind energy, the measures go well beyond any leveling of the playing field, instead significantly disadvantaging wind and solar — which the DOI refers to as “foreign-controlled energy sources” — compared to other sources of energy or uses of public lands.

Among President Donald Trump’s directives issued on his first day in office was a Presidential Memorandum targeting wind energy, which has been a significant source of new electricity generation in the United States over the past decade, totaling around 10% of utility-scale generation. Among other things, the Memorandum “temporarily” withdraws…

At the end of January, a federal judge issued a ruling in a high-profile environmental justice case, Louisiana v. EPA, brought by Louisiana against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The ruling temporarily blocks EPA and DOJ attempts to enforce disparate-impact regulations promulgated under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against Louisiana state agencies. Beyond that, the decision has potentially significant ramifications for the Biden administration’s ongoing environmental justice initiatives.