The White House Office of Management and Budget Office’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on August 11 posted a notification on its regulatory dashboard that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has sent a draft final repeal rule entitled, “Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations,” to OIRA for interagency review.
This action would finalize the interim final rule (IFR), which CEQ issued on February 25, 2025, removing its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from the Code of Federal Regulations.
While the contents of the final rule are not yet publicly available, CEQ has previously indicated that the final rule may respond to the comments submitted by stakeholders.
APPA submitted joint comments led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the IFR, which recommended:
- CEQ should guide agencies to adopt NEPA procedures that are consistent with the text of the statute and unambiguously reflect NEPA’s procedural role;
- CEQ should guide agencies to ensure that agencies continue NEPA reviews without delay using existing authorities and guidance. Consistent with CEQ’s February 19 Guidance, agencies should look to the Unleashing American Energy Executive Order and: (1) their specific substantive statute, (2) the text of NEPA, (3) any existing agency-specific NEPA procedures that the agency deems consistent with the text of NEPA, and (4) to the extent there are outstanding questions regarding NEPA compliance, the CEQ regulations as non-binding guidance;
- CEQ should guide agencies to adhere to all requirements established by the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), including requirements concerning deadlines and page limits;
- CEQ should guide agencies to expand available Categorical Exclusions and rely on programmatic review options and tiering to reduce unnecessary red tape for review of proposed actions when appropriate;
- Consistent with case law, CEQ should guide agencies to include the assessment of only the causally related “reasonably foreseeable environmental effects of the proposed agency action,” which should be limited in scope to the environmental effects covered by the agencies’ specific statutory authorities;
- Consistent with the plain language of NEPA, CEQ should guide agencies to analyze reasonably foreseeable effects without categorizing them as direct, indirect, and cumulative effects;
- CEQ should guide agencies to adopt requirements for a narrowly tailored, clearly defined purpose and need statement and alternatives analysis that reflect the applicant’s goals and the agency’s statutory authority; and
- CEQ should encourage agencies to ensure they have adequate staffing to undertake NEPA reviews.
APPA said that once the final rule is made available, it will review it and provide members with a summary and analysis of how it may impact public power utilities.
