Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Regulatory Uncertainty and Linear Infrastructure Projects: Where Are We and What’s Ahead?
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On-Demand Webinar | The New NEPA Regulations: A Practical Guide to What You Need to Know
How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Impacts the Energy Industry
The landmark nuclear legislation will help drive development, innovation, investment and deployment of advanced nuclear technologies. The ADVANCE Act takes substantial steps to help expedite the development and deployment...more
On May 1, 2024, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule to undo most of the remaining 2020 Trump Administration changes to the federal environmental review process under the National...more
On the final day of April 2024, a week and a half after Earth Day, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule intended to simplify and modernize the...more
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today published its final rule to implement “Phase 2” of its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulation amendments. This is CEQ’s final step to unwind many of...more
Several recent proposals impacting implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA") demonstrate a renewed focus on considering climate change in federal decision-making. In July, the Council on Environmental...more
On July 31, 2023, the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) proposed the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule (“Proposed Rule”), 88 Fed. Reg. 49,924 (July 31, 2023), which is better known as Phase 2 of the...more
On July 28, 2023, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations governing how federal agencies review the environmental effects of major federal...more
Last week, through the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) publication of a final rule at the close of phase one of a two-phase rulemaking process, the Biden administration began its efforts to reverse the prior...more
On Wednesday, 20 April, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized its first of two phases of rulemaking updates to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations (the 2022 Rule). The 2022 Rule unwinds a...more
First, the Commission voted to not conduct a formal rulemaking on the NRC’s current environmental review process under 10 CFR Part 51. Separately, the staff proposed alternative timelines for a rulemaking to revise the...more
On Wednesday, April 20, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a final rule completing the first stage of rulemaking to revise certain provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) implementing...more
The Commission recently approved the NRC Staff’s recommendation to pursue a 24-month schedule for updating the agency’s Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants (LR GEIS). The Commission’s...more
Congress passed, and President Richard Nixon signed, the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) in 1970. The legislation is deceptively simple, taking up less than six pages upon enactment. It requires a federal agency...more
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved publication in the Federal Register of a proposed rule, “Regulatory Improvements for Production and Utilization Facilities Transitioning to Decommissioning” on November 3,...more
On October 7, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to revise its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to...more
On October 7, 2021, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) will publish the first of two proposed rulemakings to revise National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations that had previously been updated in 2020 under...more
Last week the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comment on categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA requires that...more
This is the final in our series of eAlerts on revisions to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations published in the Federal Register on July 16, 2020 by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) (“Final Rule”)....more
This is the sixth in a series of eAlerts on revisions to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations published in the Federal Register on July 16, 2020, by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The CEQ’s...more
On 16 July, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) final rule, which largely shadows the proposed NEPA rule that was published in January of this year. As discussed...more
On July 16, 2020, the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) released in final form its eagerly anticipated revisions the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing regulations (NEPA ]Rules)....more
In another step in President Trump's ongoing efforts to relax environmental restrictions impacting economic development, on January 10, 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality published its proposed rulemaking to update...more
Public Comments Due March 10 - The White House Council on Environmental Quality issued a proposal to significantly overhaul, for the first time in 40 years, the regulations for implementing the National Environmental...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a pre-publication version of its long-awaited update to regulations governing Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) implementation (Proposed Regulations)....more
The Trump Administration has proposed the first major changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in more than three decades. These proposed changes (announced in a Jan. 10, 2020 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking)...more