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Comments Needed on Proposed Revision of CEQ NEPA Regulations

On June 20, 2018, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register stating it is considering updating its regulations on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The regulations, which govern agency compliance with NEPA, were issued in 1978 and last updated in 1983. CEQ is undertaking its current initiative to update the regulations largely in response to the August, 2017 Executive Order 13807, “Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure Projects.”

In its notice, available here, CEQ requests comments on specific aspects of the current regulations and presents these as twenty specific questions. Comments are due to CEQ by July 20. NAEP will be providing comments to CEQ in response to the notice. Please send any comments that you wish to be included in NAEP’s comments to NAEP's NEPA Practice chair Chuck Nicholson at [email protected] by July 5. Please include “Comments on CEQ NEPA Regulations Revision” in the email subject line and include the question numbers with your responses. These comments will be compiled and reviewed by the NAEP NEPA Practice and then the NAEP Board of Directors Executive Committee prior to submission to CEQ. NAEP members and affiliated members are also encouraged to send comments reflecting their personal thoughts or those of the entity where they work directly to CEQ.

2019 NAEP Conference

Call for Papers - Abstracts due Friday, June 30th!

For more information, click here, or to submit an abstract click here.

House Committee Hearing on Modernizing the National Environmental Policy Act

On November 29th, the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee held an oversight hearing on "Modernizing NEPA for the 21st Century." Video of the hearing, the hearing memo, and information about the witnesses are available at https://naturalresources.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=403418&wpisrc=nl_energy202&wpmm=1.

One of the four witnesses was Dinah Bear, a former CEQ General Counsel who has spoken at NAEP annual conferences. As is frequently the case for such hearings, both the committee members and the witnesses presented a range of opinions on the effectiveness of NEPA and potential changes to the act and its implementing regulations. The NAEP NEPA practice encourages NAEP members and affiliates, particularly those involved with NEPA, to watch the video of this hearing.

NAEP Annual National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Report for 2016

The National Association of Environmental Professionals’ (NAEP’s) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Practice (formerly known as the NEPA Working Group) is pleased to present our ninth NEPA Annual Report. This report contains summaries of the latest developments in NEPA as well as the NEPA Practice’s efforts for the past year. This annual report is prepared and published through the initiative and volunteer efforts of members of the NAEP’s NEPA Practice. The 2016 NEPA Annual Report includes:

1. Introduction
2. The NEPA Practice in 2016
3. Just the Stats on 2016 EISs filed with the U.S. EPA
4. Preparation Times for Environmental Impact Statements Made Available in 2016
5. Recent Congressional Legislation Regarding NEPA
6. 2016 NEPA Cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeal and Cumulative Impacts Cases

In 2016, announcements of 312 Draft, Final, and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) were published in the Federal Register. The Forest Service published the most documents with 67 (21% of total), followed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (37/12%), Bureau of Land Management (30/10%), Fish and Wildlife Service (18/17%), and Federal Highway Administration (16/5%) (based on information in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) database of EISs; http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/nepa/eisdata.html). Additional statistics, including those on EPA’s ratings of Draft EISs, is provided in Section 3 of the Annual Report, “Just the Stats.”

The NEPA Annual Report also found that the average time to prepare the 177 Final EISs issued in 2016 (measured from Notice of Intent to Final EIS) was 5.1 years. While this continues the recent trend of increasing Final EIS preparation times, the average time to prepare the Draft EISs issued in 2016 again showed signs of a decreasing trend. Seventeen percent of Final EISs were prepared in two years or less, a small increase from 2015. Substantially more information is provided in Section 4 of the Annual Report, “Preparation Times for Environmental Impact Statements Made Available in 2016.”

Although numerous bills addressing NEPA were introduced in the 114th Congress, few that were enacted into law contained substantive NEPA provisions. Among those with substantive changes to NEPA practices were the FAST (“Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act, particularly its Title XLI, and the WIIN (Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation) Act. These acts, along with the NEPA-related bills introduced in the 114th Congress and early in the 115th Congress, are described in Section 3 of the Annual Report, “Recent Congressional Legislation Regarding NEPA.”

In 2016, the U.S. Courts of Appeal issued 27 substantive decisions involving implementation of NEPA. The 27 cases involved 7 different departments and agencies, with the agencies prevailing in 21 (79 percent) of the cases. Detailed summaries of these cases are provided in Sections 6 and 7 of the Annual Report. The 2016 NEPA Annual Report is available at no cost to NAEP members as an NAEP Member Benefit. NAEP also provides copies to Federal agency NEPA liaisons.

Past issues of the NAEP NEPA Annual Report are available on the NAEP website at https://naep.memberclicks.net/members-only-section.

^{Updated Oct 11, 2017}

NAEP Response to Inquiry from the U.S. Government Accountability Office Regarding Resource Agency Streamlining (Engagement 101946)

Click here to view the PDF of NAEP's response.