New NEPA Limits on the Horizon -
It has been a year of major change for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), marked by various court decisions, executive orders, and the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ)...more
Today the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued an interim final rule (IFR) that will soon remove all existing CEQ regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Other than the issuance of...more
On November 12, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—the entity under the Executive Office of the President that has long overseen National...more
On July 31, 2023, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed to update its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) across the federal government. Reflecting the increasingly...more
Today, President Biden signed a new executive order further directing all federal agencies to prioritize environmental justice (EJ) initiatives in their core missions. The Executive Order, entitled Revitalizing Our Nation’s...more
On April 20, 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a final rule rolling back minor regulatory changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process that it had promulgated in...more
On August 3, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC Circuit) rejected the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) environmental analysis of a group of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)...more
On February 11, 2021, the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision vacating Nationwide Permit (NWP) 48, Commercial Shellfish Mariculture Activities, in Washington State. As previously discussed, industry appealed...more
On September 14, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued nonbinding guidance to agencies to help them comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) during emergencies. The guidance comes less than...more
On Wednesday, July 15, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a Final Rule updating its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) across the federal government. 85 Fed. Reg....more
On Thursday, June 4, 2020, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) on “Accelerating the Nation’s Economic Recovery from the COVID-19 Emergency by Expediting Infrastructure Investments and Other Activities.” Relying on...more
National environmental groups recently filed a pair of new lawsuits in New York federal district court seeking to expand the scope of liability for “incidental take” under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”). The...more
The Office of Management and Budget and Council on Environmental Quality, on March 20, 2018, issued a Memorandum instructing federal agencies how to implement the “One Federal Decision” policy established in Executive Order...more
On December 19, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a long-awaited ruling upholding the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for the new light-rail Purple Line in Maryland. As previously...more
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), (U.S. DOT) have published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on DOT’s Program for Eliminating...more
Infrastructure has been a headline topic since before the 2016 election, and perhaps never more so than during the unprecedented storm season. The current Administration, like its predecessors, has pursued means to expedite...more
In a 2-1 decision, the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) did not satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) when it...more
New Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke wasted no time implementing the mandates of the Trump Administration’s most recent Executive Order (EO), “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” which was issued on March...more
On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth” (EO). This latest EO aims to further incentivize domestic energy production, particularly coal, oil...more
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (“USDA”) Animal and Plant Health Information Service (“APHIS”) is renewing efforts to amend or replace its existing rules governing plant-based biotechnology, while highlighting possible...more
In 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) issued a rule increasing the maximum duration from five to 30 years of programmatic permits under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to “take” bald or golden eagles...more
The Department of the Interior today announced that it will publish for public comment a draft proposed Five-Year Program (“DPP”) governing the leasing of offshore oil and gas for 2017 through 2022. Interior’s DPP will...more
Just before Christmas, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) published revised draft guidance intended to direct federal agencies on when and how to consider the effects of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions...more