White House Issues Proposed Regulation To Reform Energy Project Permitting Process

Last week, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a proposed regulation that, if implemented, would streamline the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act for critical U.S. energy projects. The proposal was mandated by legislation Congress approved earlier this year.

The CEQ said its proposal:

• Better coordinates environmental reviews and set specific project schedules and milestones while clarifying those projects that have significant, long-lasting positive impacts do not require environmental impact statements;
• Encourages the use of programmatic environmental reviews that cover multiple projects or categories of projects and can expedite deployment of clean energy, transmission, broadband, and other infrastructure;
• Clarifies that agencies can establish joint categorical exclusions, and discourages duplication by allowing agencies to incorporate existing high-quality analysis into environmental reviews;
• Clarifies that agencies should consider climate change effects in environmental reviews and encourages identification of reasonable alternatives that will mitigate climate impacts so that we build smart from the start on firm legal footing;
• Restores and updates the long-standing approach to consider the context and intensity when determining the significance of effects to ensure agencies conduct the proper level of review, and that reviews focus on the issues and effects that are important to the decision;
• Encourages early and meaningful engagement with communities, fostering community buy-in, reducing conflict, and improving project design, which in turn may reduce litigation; and
• Removes certain changes instituted by the Trump administration, including removing detailed and onerous requirements on what public comments must contain to be considered by agencies.

Read the CEQ’s announcement here. The formal proposal has information regarding how the public can submit comments on the proposed rule. (Comments are due by September 29, 2023.) Find that notice here.