The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comments about its current National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) framework, to “further expedite, simplify, and reduce the costs of environmental review.”
The request comes as part of a review of its permitting regulations, including those under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In particular, the FCC wants to “refresh . . . the record on the meaning of ‘undertaking’ and the Commission’s approach to implementing section 106.” The FCC also seeks comments on “whether activities related to the deployment and operation of communications infrastructure are within the scope of ‘undertaking,’ as well as on other practices or actions the Commission could adopt to provide more efficiency and predictability in the section 106 process.”
Comments are due to the FCC by November 18, 2026.
I worked in a state historic preservation office for almost a decade. I reviewed many applications for towers. I’ve also done both archaeology and architectural history fieldwork an or d reports for proposed towers.
I find the current agreement is lacking in protection of historic resources, particularly since they can only consider what is on the register or eligible BUT can’t consider unrecorded sources. That should be changed to require viewshed surveys of resources and determine if they are eligible before distroying the viewshed, or the resource itself with a FCC regulated array or tower.
Cell towers should be exempt from NEPA regulations due to NEPA being an out of date policy developed over 50 years ago. Consulting firms are weaponizing NEPA for profit because they can. Yes, i was an owner of a consulting firm who used this out of date policy to make millions of dollars off the consumer, the cell phone user. Cell towers, both monopoles and collos, do little if any impact on the environment. Just requiring a FCC license should not mandate a NEPA report for profit.