NEPA Attack

For over 50 years, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has been an empowering legal tool that allows communities in the United States to defend themselves against harmful government and industry actions. NEPA ensures that the federal government makes the best decision based on the best information while engaging and informing the public it serves.

For nearly as long, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has provided federal agencies with guidance, through binding regulations, to ensure NEPA is applied consistently and correctly across the federal government. 

However, the Trump Administration has taken a major step to weaken NEPA by eliminating the CEQ’s NEPA regulations, striking a blow at the heart of our nation’s bedrock environmental law.

Wild winters stand to win with more environmental review and climate-conscious alternatives to proposed projects on public lands. Without CEQ regulations requiring all agencies to follow a consistent interpretation of NEPA—including considerations of climate change, cumulative effects, and meaningful public engagement, and more—our public lands, the environment, and so much more are at risk.

The Interim Final Rule

On February 25, CEQ posted an “Interim Final Rule” removing the CEQ regulations that implement NEPA from the Code of Federal Regulations.

The stage was set for this action on January 20, when President Trump, in Executive Order 14154 (Unleashing American Energy), revoked a Carter-era Executive Order giving CEQ the authority to issue binding NEPA regulations. This Order had stood through both Republican and Democratic Administrations since 1977.

By posting an interim final rule, the Administration has sidestepped the standard rulemaking process normally required for a change of this magnitude.

Although there is a comment period (ending March 27), it is not expected that any amount of public comment will lead the Administration to reverse course. However, submitting a comment is still valuable to let the Administration know that you oppose the Interim Rule.

What happens next? The Impact on Public Lands and Environmental Reviews

The Interim Rule will go into effect—meaning that CEQ’s NEPA regulations will no longer be on the books—on April 11. At this point, each federal agency will be responsible for developing its own NEPA implementing regulations.  

For decades, CEQ’s NEPA regulations have provided direction for how the environmental impact analyses required by NEPA should take place, regardless of agency.

Without CEQ regulations, we are left with a random assortment of agency-specific NEPA interpretations. Agencies considering substantially similar projects may interpret and apply NEPA in wildly different ways. Projects that involve multiple agencies may be subject to different approaches to NEPA compliance. All this inconsistency will lead to:

• Unnecessary confusion for the public, project proponents, local, state, and Tribal governments, and the agencies themselves.
• Delays and litigation regarding the development of federal projects.
• Significant undermining of regulatory and management certainty.
• Inefficiency and roadblocks in decision-making, as uncertainty and inconsistency are never a recipe for speed or effectiveness—especially for complex projects.
• Reduced transparency into agency decision-making, running counter to the law.

The Step Backward

Winter Wildlands Alliance strongly opposes the move to drop CEQ’s NEPA regulations. We are also very concerned that the guidance accompanying the Interim Final Rule encourages agencies to use the weakened 2020 NEPA rule as framework for developing agency-specific NEPA regulations.

The 2020 NEPA Rule limited public participation, restricted the scope of environmental analyses, and was wholly intended to fast-track approval for development and infrastructure projects. For these reasons, and others, Wildlands Alliance was among the many organizations to challenge the 2020 rule.

Holding Agencies Accountable

Even without regulations for agencies to follow, CEQ must ensure that all federal agencies continue to adhere to NEPA’s principles of sound environmental review and analysis, including transparency and robust public participation, as outlined in the law.

Moving forward, Winter Wildlands Alliance will be tracking when and how the federal agencies we work with develop their unique NEPA regulations. Some, like the U.S. Forest Service, already have NEPA rules, but we expect these will be changed (for the worse) in the coming years.