Latest news with #CEQ
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge delivers stunning blow that could put Americans' health at risk: 'Will further harm communities already struggling'
The United States is likely to see an uptick in dangerous environmental pollution thanks to the loss of regulatory measures keeping it in check. In February, a federal judge struck a major blow against environmental protections by declaring that the White House Council on Environmental Quality lacks the authority to issue regulations, Reuters reported. It is the latest in a series of judicial decisions weakening the federal government's ability to protect Americans from pollution. The decision concerns the CEQ, a body established by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act. Under that act, the council is to perform environmental reviews for projects that require federal permits or receive federal funding. NEPA reviews can delay projects by years, but they help ensure that construction and development don't harm the very communities they're performed in. Since a 1977 executive order by President Jimmy Carter, the CEQ has also established environmental regulations for other federal departments to follow. That is, until now. In February, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor of North Dakota ruled on a suit filed by 20 Republican-led states. The suit alleged that the CEQ had overstepped its authority with a new rule intended to revise the environmental review process, which would have increased building costs. Traynor ruled that the CEQ never had the power to create regulations in the first place, only to advise the president. This is despite the fact that CEQ and NEPA activities have frequently come before the court, including the U.S. Supreme Court. "The truth is that for the past forty years, all three branches of government operated under the erroneous assumption that CEQ had authority," Traynor wrote in his decision. "But now everyone knows the state of the emperor's clothing, and it is something we cannot unsee." Traynor's baffling decision will damage the CEQ's ability to regulate federally funded development, industry, and infrastructure projects. It will lead to more pollution, which is already a large enough problem. "The court's ruling will weaken environmental reviews and will further harm communities already struggling with polluted land, air, and water," Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for Earthjustice, said in a statement, per Reuters. Do you worry about air pollution in and around your home? Yes — always Yes — often Yes — sometimes No — never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. While some of the damage is already done, you can help curb it in the future. Vote for pro-climate candidates who will protect the public from dangerous air, water, and soil pollution. Also, you can use your purchasing power to make it clear to companies that you support clean, eco-friendly policies. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How a Trump effort to cut environmental red tape could backfire
For roughly half a century, a little-known body called the White House Council on Environmental Quality has been in charge of overseeing implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, a 1970 statute widely considered the 'Magna Carta' of environmental law. Congress passed the law at a time when Cleveland's Cuyahoga River was on fire and yellow smog blanketed American cities. In an attempt to prevent such calamities, NEPA requires that any big infrastructure project funded or authorized by the federal government must account for its environmental impacts before it's permitted to go forward. Now, when cities and states build federally funded roads, a developer erects an offshore wind farm, or an oil company builds a new refining unit on the Gulf Coast, NEPA applies. This sweeping requirement created a need for coordination within the government. Given the number of federal agencies involved and the potential for larger projects to require authorization from multiple departments — a pipeline, for example, might require sign-off from the Department of Transportation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency — Congress created the Council on Environmental Quality, or CEQ, and housed it within the White House in part to oversee NEPA implementation across the federal government. Since then, CEQ has been a central clearinghouse for interpreting the landmark law. In the years after its creation, the council issued rules that set forth requirements for public comment, defined key terminology, and laid out when projects required extensive analysis. The rules ensured uniformity in how agencies applied the law, and they were left largely untouched for roughly five decades. Last month, the Trump administration unraveled those rules, and with them the council's central role in implementing NEPA. By issuing a new interim rule, the White House is proposing to rescind CEQ's guidance and instruct federal agencies to develop their own individual guidelines. The White House's rule is expected to be finalized in the coming months, at which point every agency, from the Bureau of Land Management to the U.S. Forest Service, will be expected to develop its own standards and processes for determining whether a project complies with NEPA requirements, a process that could take years. Their interpretations could also be challenged in court, creating further uncertainty about what standards now apply for getting nearly any infrastructure project approved by the feds. In an echo of the Trump administration's refrain that extraordinary measures are required to curb government inefficiency, the unraveling of CEQ is intended to 'expedite and simplify the permitting process' for important projects, according to Trump's executive order. But experts who spoke to Grist anticipate that it will have the opposite effect. 'It's chaos,' said Deborah Sivas, director of the environmental law clinic at Stanford University. 'No business would run this way. If you're a developer, you're like, 'What the heck? What even applies? How do I go about doing this right?'' Complying with NEPA involves preparing lengthy environmental assessments, a process that is time-consuming and resource-intensive. The average time to complete the NEPA process is three years, and the average Environmental Impact Statement, one type of assessment reserved for larger projects, is more than 1,200 pages long. As a result, reforming NEPA has become a priority for prominent lawmakers in both parties. (Many Democrats in particular worry that the process hampers efforts to build renewable energy infrastructure.) But simply throwing out a longstanding, centralized playbook for agencies to follow will create uncertainty and slow the process down, at least in the short term, according to Justin Pidot, a law professor at the University of Arizona who was the general counsel at CEQ during the Biden administration. 'It's a huge mistake,' said Pidot. 'It's going to be very resource-intensive for them to do all these new procedures, and there's going to be more uncertainty, and the permitting process is going to be harder and more complex. And all that is going to be happening at a time when there are fewer federal employees with less expertise.' CEQ's authority was largely unquestioned over its 50-year lifespan, but two court cases in the last year seemed to indicate a change in opinion among some legal scholars. In November, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case deciding whether federal agencies had adequately considered environmental impacts when developing plans to regulate tourist flights over national parks. In their ruling, the judges suggested that CEQ did not have the authority to issue binding regulations in its implementation of NEPA. Then, in February, a district court in North Dakota came to a similar conclusion. Since CEQ is an office within the White House and not an agency created by Congress, the court ruled that CEQ did not have the authority to issue binding regulations. 'The two cases definitely started going down that pathway of questioning or calling out what authority CEQ actually had,' said Jennifer Jeffers, senior counsel at the law firm Allen Matkins. 'I don't think that many people had foreseen this because it had been a longstanding practice and had not been a source of contention until quite recently.' Still, the most significant blow to the office's authority came only with Trump's executive order. While it's unclear how quickly agencies will produce their own NEPA-related rules and what it will mean for project developers, Jeffers said she expects the current requirements will continue to apply for projects in the pipeline as long as they are not inconsistent with the executive order. The irony is that even Trump's favored constituencies, like the fossil fuel developers he says will restore U.S. 'energy dominance,' are left to wonder what new rules they'll be forced to navigate when seeking federal permits in the future. 'It is not a good way for this administration to accomplish what this administration wants to accomplish,' said Pidot. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How a Trump effort to cut environmental red tape could backfire on Mar 7, 2025.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Administration Moves To Streamline Environmental Reviews
Last week, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released an interim final rule to remove its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidelines. The rule was issued in response to President Donald Trump's executive order, "Unleashing American Energy," which also directs federal agencies to "undertake all available efforts to eliminate all delays within their respective permitting processes." The proposed rule will go into effect 45 days after its publication. The rule intends to reduce federal bureaucracy by reverting the mission of CEQ to its origins. The agency, which was created with the passage of NEPA, was originally intended to advise the executive branch on environmental matters and NEPA implementation. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order that required federal agencies to comply with NEPA regulations published by the CEQ. Since then, the council has been the guiding agency for the federal government's NEPA reviews. Trump's executive order reversed Carter's, which rescinded CEQ's regulatory authority over other federal agencies. The proposed rule, if implemented, would not strike down NEPA altogether (this would require congressional approval). Instead, it would remove CEQ's NEPA regulations from the federal register and allow federal agencies to use their own rules to comply with the law. Many agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Forest Service, already have their own NEPA regulations in place. Any effort to streamline the NEPA process should be welcomed by all. Since its passage in 1969, the law has become a redundant, bureaucratic nightmare that has slowed down or killed key infrastructure, energy, and environmental projects. While paperwork is a contributing factor—in 2020 the CEQ found it took an average of 4.5 years and 600 pages to complete an environmental impact statement (stricter page and time limits were codified in the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act)—the main culprit is litigation. NEPA-related lawsuits can be filed up to six years after a project has been announced or a permit has been awarded, which primarily impacts forest management and energy development. After navigating red tape and paperwork for more than three years, litigation further delays forest restoration projects by an average of two years, according to the Property and Environment Research Center. Energy projects endure a similar fate and can face nearly four years of NEPA litigation before proceeding, per the Breakthrough Institute. Most of these lawsuits are brought forth by activists and national nonprofit organizations, who do not have a stake in the community where the project is taking place. They are also mostly unsuccessful—federal agencies won more than 80 percent of the NEPA lawsuits they faced from 2013 to 2022. Notably, Trump's executive order directs federal agencies to "prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives, including those of activist groups, that do not align with policy goals" to increase energy production. Importantly, comprehensive environmental reviews under NEPA are not needed to protect the environment—several federal and state laws on the book are better equipped to do that, a fact that even Democratic presidents have recognized. For example, the Obama administration fast-tracked the NEPA process for more than 179,000 stimulus package projects to get money out the door as quickly as possible. Last year, Joe Biden exempted CHIPS Act awardees from complying with NEPA. The CEQ's interim rule may reduce NEPA-caused bureaucracy, which is sorely needed to streamline permitting in the United States. The Trump administration should go further and work with Congress to repeal the law outright. The post Trump Administration Moves To Streamline Environmental Reviews appeared first on
Reuters
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
White House environmental office lacks rulemaking authority, judge rules
Feb 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge in North Dakota threw out a Biden administration rule governing the U.S. environmental review process for infrastructure projects, saying the White House Council on Environmental Quality lacks authority to issue regulations. U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor in Bismarck on Monday sided with, opens new tab 20 Republican-led states who in a lawsuit filed in May argued the council exceeded its authority by adopting a rule that they said would increase project costs and unfairly favor clean energy projects. That 2024 rule sought to streamline analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, a 1969 law that requires environmental reviews for major projects that receive federal permits or funding. NEPA reviews are the frequent focus of litigation, which can delay the construction on projects for years. The law also established the council, which Democratic former President Jimmy Carter in a 1977 executive order instructed to adopt regulations to implement the law that other agencies must follow. That executive order was revoked by U.S. President Donald Trump on the Republican's first day back in office on Jan. 20. The executive order also required the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to propose rescinding all NEPA regulations, including the Biden-era one, by Feb. 19. Traynor, who was appointed by Trump in his first term in office, said Congress never authorized CEQ in the first place to adopt regulations, only to make recommendations to the president on national policy. He said that while CEQ was long assumed to have regulatory power, courts including the U.S. Supreme Court despite reviewing cases concerning NEPA regulations never closely examined CEQ's underlying authority. "The truth is that for the past forty years all three branches of government operated under the erroneous assumption that CEQ had authority," Traynor wrote. "But now everyone knows the state of the emperor's clothing and it is something we cannot unsee." He noted a 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in November similarly concluded CEQ lacked authority to issue enforceable regulations in a separate case concerning air tour plans for national parks. The full D.C. Circuit last week declined to reconsider that ruling. Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration had called the 2024 rule a "core element" of his efforts to build out clean energy systems and to rebuild American infrastructure. The rule built on amendments to the NEPA regulations that were finalized in 2022, when the Biden administration began rolling back changes by Trump's first administration that made the process less stringent. The rule was defended in court not just by Biden's administration but by several environmental groups, 13 Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia and New York City, who all intervened pre-election to defend the policy. They argued CEQ's authority had long been recognized by courts. "The court's ruling will weaken environmental reviews and will further harm communities already struggling with polluted land, air, and water," Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the environmental groups at Earthjustice, said in a statement. The case is State of Iowa v. Council on Environmental Quality, U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, No. 1:24-cv-00089. For the Republican-led states: Eric Wessan of the Iowa Office of Attorney General and Philip Axt of the North Dakota Office of Attorney General For the Council on Environmental Quality: Gregory Cumming of the U.S. Department of Justice For the Democratic-led states: Elizabeth Harris of the Washington State Attorney General's Office For the environmental groups: Jan Hasselman of Earthjustice
