On February 3, 2025, a federal judge in North Dakota overturned the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Phase II regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The lawsuit, led by Iowa and North Dakota, was backed by 21 states seeking to block the 2024 regulations and restore the first Trump Administration’s controversial 2020 rules. These rules are already the subject of multiple lawsuits, including one in which Winter Wildlands Alliance is a plaintiff.

Winter Wildlands Alliance and 20 other organizations went to bat to defend the Phase II rules as defendant-intervenors in this case, with representation by Earthjustice and Silvix Resources.

Background

Often called the Magna Carta of environmental law, NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of their decisions. It ensures transparency, gives the public the right to weigh in before government decisions are made, and embeds environmental values in these decisions.

In April 2024, the CEQ finalized new “Phase II” regulations to modernize NEPA’s the fifty-year old law. These “Phase II” regulations gave the public a stronger voice in public lands management and government decisions that affect public health. They also strengthened requirements for assessing climate and environmental justice impacts, while centering science in government decision-making. These regulations complemented the “Phase I” regulations CEQ issued in 2022, which restored basic environmental safeguards that had been upended by the 2020 rules.

What did the Court rule?

The North Dakota court rejected the states’ complaints over the government’s ability to consider environmental justice and climate change impacts. Instead, the court’s decision focused on a different issue—whether CEQ has authority to issue binding regulations at all.

Until recently, this was not an issue that had been up for debate. For decades, agencies, Congress, and federal courts at every level had treated CEQ’s NEPA regulations as binding. However, in November 2024, a D.C. appellate court questioned this authority for the first time. Following that lead, both the D.C. court and the North Dakota court ruled that Congress never gave CEQ authority to issue binding regulations. As a result, the court vacated the Phase II rules, meaning NEPA implementation now defaults to the 2020 rules, as amended by the 2022 Phase I regulations and changes Congress made through the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Furthermore, the North Dakota court found that the President could not claim such authority through an executive order or use executive orders to circumvent the laws that Congress enacts. The Court wrote:

“People fought to separate these powers in a new form of government. People died for this new government because they saw what happened when all the power was held in one hand. Power can be taken by force, given, or lost inch by inch. It is the job of Congress to enact the law. It is the job of the President to enforce the law.”   

Since his January 20, 2025 inauguration, President Trump has issued dozens of executive orders, and taken other actions that violate this mandate—including several that further weaken NEPA and other environmental laws. One of these orders, EO 14154 (“unleashing American energy”) revokes a Carter-era executive order that gave CEQ the authority to issue binding NEPA regulations. 

What’s Next for NEPA?

Hilary Eisen, Winter Wildlands Alliance’s Policy Director explains:

“This court’s actions undermine NEPA and will weaken federal environmental reviews, putting public lands, air, waters, and people at risk.“

“But, the Court has also reminded Congress that it is their job—not the President’s—to enact laws and that an administration does not have the authority to reverse any law on its own.”