The American Public Power Association recently joined a coalition of industry trade groups in filing comments in response to the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ’s) interim final rule to remove the National Environmental Policy Act implementing regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations.
The joint comments generally express support for the Administration’s recent efforts to streamline environmental reviews under NEPA and advocate for the use of predictability, efficiency, and transparency as guiding principles as new NEPA implementing procedures are developed.
The joint comments make the following recommendations:
- Guiding agencies to adopt NEPA procedures that are consistent with the text of the statute and unambiguously reflect NEPA’s procedural role;
- Ensuring that agencies continue NEPA reviews without delay using existing authorities and guidance;
- Guiding agencies to adhere to all requirements established by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, including requirements concerning deadlines and page limits;
- Guiding agencies to expand available categorical exclusions and rely on programmatic review options and tiering to reduce unnecessary red tape for review of proposed actions;
- Guiding agencies to include the assessment of only the causally related “reasonably foreseeable environmental effects of the proposed agency action;”
- Guiding agencies to analyze reasonably foreseeable effects without categorizing them as direct, indirect, and cumulative effects;
- Guiding agencies to adopt requirements for a narrowly tailored, clearly defined purpose and need statement and alternatives analysis that reflect the applicant’s goals and the agency’s statutory authority; and
- Encouraging agencies to ensure adequate staffing to undertake NEPA reviews.
