Trump Administration is weighing potentially comprehensive overhaul to regulations governing federal environmental review to cut red tape and avoid excessive delay to process.

By Janice M. Schneider, Tommy P. Beaudreau, Jennifer K. Roy, Bobbi-Jo B. Dobush, and Diego Enrique Flores

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Advance Notice) in the Federal Register, requesting public comment on potential updates to the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA’s) implementing regulations intended to “ensure a more efficient, timely, and effective NEPA process[.]” The public comment period currently lasts 30 days, until July 20, 2018.

The CEQ NEPA regulations, which were first promulgated in 1978, have only been revised once (to eliminate the “worst case” analysis requirement) in 40 years. The Advance Notice was prompted by an executive order issued by President Trump on August 15, 2017, directing CEQ to enhance and modernize the federal environmental review and authorization process. Streamlining the environmental review process and cutting red tape has been a hallmark priority of the Trump Administration. CEQ subsequently identified reviewing NEPA regulations as a priority for complying with President Trump’s executive order — consistent with the Trump Administration’s many actions — including the recently issued “One Federal Decision” Memorandum of Agreement. In particular, the Department of Interior has issued Secretarial orders and policy memoranda aimed at, among other things, compressing the time and length for agency preparation of environmental impact statements and other NEPA reviews. The potentially sweeping changes to CEQ’s NEPA regulations, signaled by the Advance Notice, may prove to be the Trump Administration’s most consequential reforms of the federal environmental review process.