ACRA has submitted comments to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) opposing its interim final rule eliminating CEQ’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations.
CEQ issued its interim final rule last month in response to President Trump’s executive order “Unleashing American Energy,” which revoked CEQ’s authority to issue NEPA rules. Although this rule does not alter the NEPA statute itself, nor does it change individual agencies’ NEPA implementing rules, the move is the most significant change in how the federal government addresses the environmental impacts of its actions in decades.
In its comments, ACRA stated that, while it “supports efforts to make the NEPA process more efficient and effective. . . the elimination of CEQ’s implementing regulations will invite more litigation, delay projects, prevent public engagement, and threaten historic and cultural places without consideration of how federal actions impact them.”
ACRA pointed out that delegating NEPA rulemaking to individual federal agencies would result in inconsistent NEPA implementation, “causing confusion and delay as agencies and stakeholders are forced to navigate a patchwork of varying regulatory schemes.” ACRA also stated that the interim final rule will threaten the protection and preservation of historic properties, reduce public consultation, and potentially deprive Tribes of their ability to protect heritage resources, including sacred places.
In its comments, ACRA concluded that, “[b]y leaving rulemaking to individual agencies, this interim final rule makes the work of improving NEPA significantly and needlessly more complex, time consuming, and expensive. The result will be a byzantine regulatory labyrinth that fosters confusion, inconsistency and inefficiency across the Federal government that will neither protect our heritage nor accelerate infrastructure projects.”