A couple of weeks ago we alerted you to changes that will gut regulations and participation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)  by doing away with decades of Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations, some going back to 1978. The CEQ oversees NEPA implementation and issues guidance and interpretation of regulations.

We wanted to let you know that an expedited rule change is out for public comment that could dismantle the National Environmental Policy Act by April 11.

Comments are due by March 27. You can find the document and a blue “comment” button HERE if you want to participate. 

Driving this change appears to be a desire to redefine what needs any environmental analysis and disclosure (what they can do without any NEPA) and to limit the scope of any in-depth analysis undertaken for oil and gas, hard rock mining, pipelines, the things that can cause incredible destruction and pollute the environment.

NEPA is essentially a barebones law that requires analysis of environmental impacts and provides public participation in order to “use all practicable means to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony.” As Congress does not have expertise to craft technical regulations, the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) wrote regulations for everything from massive extractive industries to ATV trails.

“The President has directed CEQ … to simultaneously issue guidance to agencies on implementing NEPA and to propose rescinding CEQ’s NEPA regulations within 30 days.” It seems rather contradictory, but that is where we stand right now.

The CEQ issued a memo for “voluntary guidance.” Basically the memo says to “keep doing what you are doing,” shifting responsibility from CEQ regulations to agencies’ individual procedures but advises to maintain the status quo (and even notes active litigation and comment periods) until the new rulemaking is completed. Agencies must update their individual procedures within a year and we expect to see a lot of debate as that process occurs.

Forcing agencies to create their own regulations within a year, while massive firings are creating staffing shortages, is pretty absurd. As we wrote in the earlier article, this is an acceleration into gridlock… in both gaining any substantive regulations and a wall of litigation that will increase costs substantially.

The interim rule process is a really rapid way of making major federal regulatory changes then the typical federal register review process. This gutting of regulations will primarily loosen review of large polluters and could impact things like wild horse and burro roundups by omitting them from any review.

Comments are due by March 27. You can find the document and a blue “comment” button HERE if you want to participate. 

You can simply say something like: The chaos this new rule will cause does not serve public resources or the taxpayer in any way. This new rule does not protect the American public. A careful review of specific regulations issued by the CEQ might be in order. Broad-scale chaos reflected in this proposed rule is irresponsible. 

Our team is working on several active lawsuits and our next “legal team update” will be published soon.

We need your support to keep our critical work alive. We must keep active litigation running to conclusion and launch new cases as needed to keep a strong line of defense. 

All of our work is only possible with your support. We thank you for keeping the critical work we do at WHE running for our wild ones.