White House Issues Final Rule Expanding Environmental Reviews

The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality recently issued a final rule to address the process for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews. As a White House fact sheet explained, the final rule will:

• Restore the requirement that federal agencies evaluate all the relevant environmental impacts of the decisions they are making;
• Restore agencies’ full authority to work with communities to develop and analyze alternative approaches to minimize environmental and public health costs; and
• Establish CEQ’s NEPA regulations as a floor, rather than a ceiling, for the environmental review standards that federal agencies should be meeting.

The Trump administration had eliminated considerations of environmental factors in its policymaking and infrastructure project considerations.

Members of the business community have spoken out against this new regulation. The federal government needs a more efficient permitting process in order to ensure that modern infrastructure projects are built in a timely manner. Unfortunately, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has argued, reinstating NEPA regulation will likely make it more difficult for projects to be completed on time and on budget.

In related other energy and environmental policy news: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a white paper that outlines ways that it might reduce emissions for gas-fired power plants. Ideas include efficiency improvements, co-firing natural gas with other fuels like hydrogen, and implementing carbon capture technology. Read more here.