Teleforum

On January 10, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed revisions to its regulations for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law in 1970. CEQ has not comprehensively updated these regulations for forty years. Since its enactment, the NEPA environmental review and permitting process has become increasingly complex and time-consuming. Importantly, NEPA is a procedural statute that requires Federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed major Federal actions. The chosen means is a “procedural” statute that requires Federal agencies to prepare a detailed statement on environmental impacts from a proposed Federal action, alternatives to the proposed action, unavoidable adverse effects, and any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources that would be involved. The average length of an environmental impact statement is over 600 pages and the average time to complete a NEPA review of major projects is four and a ha