Last week, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released an interim final rule to remove its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidelines. The rule was issued in response to President Donald Trump's executive order, "Unleashing American Energy," which also directs federal agencies to "undertake all available efforts to eliminate all delays within their respective permitting processes." The proposed rule will go into effect 45 days after its publication.
The rule intends to reduce federal bureaucracy by reverting the mission of CEQ to its origins. The agency, which was created with the passage of NEPA, was originally intended to advise the executive branch on environmental matters and NEPA implementation. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order that required federal agencies to comply with NEPA regulations published by the CEQ. Since then, the council has been the guiding agency for the federal government's NEPA reviews.
Trump's executive order reversed Carter's, which rescinded CEQ's regulatory authority over other federal agencies. The proposed rule, if implemented, would not strike down NEPA altogether (this would require congressional approval). Instead, it would remove CEQ's NEPA regulations from the federal register and allow federal agencies to use their own rules to comply with the law. Many agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Forest Service, already have their own NEPA regulations in place.
