Agencies Amend NEPA Implementation Regs, Policies

Several federal agencies on July 3 amended their regulations and policies implementing requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to reflect changes made under a Trump administration executive order that removed the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) general oversight of federal NEPA regulations, as well as in response to other legislative and judicial actions.

NEPA established a federal national environmental policy “to use all practicable means and measures to foster and promote the general welfare, create and maintain conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans” (see ¶522 in the Federal Grants Management Module). The law established CEQ as an advisory agency within the White House to assist and advise the president on certain environmental matters and the implementation of NEPA’s national policy. Among federal grant recipients, those overseeing highway, construction and environmental projects would be most impacted by NEPA regulations. The Office of Management and Budget addresses NEPA in one reference in the uniform guidance pertaining to the full text of the grant application at Appendix I.B.4.i.D.

Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” removed CEQ’s prior asserted basis for issuing and maintaining its NEPA regulations, and directed CEQ to provide guidance to federal agencies on implementing NEPA “to expedite and simplify the permitting process.” CEQ issued an interim final rule, which became effective on March 27, removing the CEQ regulations, many of which had been in place since 1978, and directed federal agencies to develop, by Feb. 19, 2026, new NEPA implementation procedures that are consistent governmentwide (see “CEQ Set To Remove Its NEPA Regulations,” April 2025).

Also affecting the issuances of these July 3 NEPA-related actions was the implantation of new statutory requirements related to environmental reviews under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (Pub. L. 118-5), signed on June 3, 2023. The actions also reflected a decision in a May 29 U.S. Supreme Court case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colo., 145 S. Ct. 1497 (2025), that made a major “course correction” to NEPA concerning the environmental review and permitting process. The court expressed concern about the “transformation” of NEPA from its roots as “a modest procedural requirement,” into a significant “substantive roadblock” that “paralyze[s] agency decisionmaking.” The court’s ruling requires agencies to consider the environmental effects of proposed actions as part of federal agency decisionmaking, not on separate projects that may occur later, thereby allowing for quicker, more efficient environmental reviews.

DOT, USDA

The Department of Transportation (DOT) took three actions on July 3. First, it issued a joint interim final rule to amend Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration regulations (23 C.F.R. Part 771, 49 C.F.R. Part 264 and 49 C.F.R. Part 622) to remove cross-references to the CEQ regulations and implement new statutory requirements related to environmental reviews under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. It also updated DOT Order 5610.1C, ‘‘Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts,’’ which establishes the agency’s procedures for complying with NEPA, and rescinded Federal Aviation Administration Order 1050.1F, “Environmental Impacts: Policies and Procedures,” in light of EO 14154.

DOT officials stated that the agency’s actions will allow for quicker construction of roads, bridges, broadband and energy installations by:

• implementing deadlines and page limits on environmental reviews required under recent amendments to NEPA to expedite infrastructure development and reduce costs;
• providing clarification that NEPA does not apply to every action that a federal agency takes, but only to federal actions where the agency has sufficient control and discretion to take environmental effects into account; and
• ensuring simple and expeditious processes to create categorical exclusions (CEs) (i.e., the least burdensome class of action), adopt other agencies’ CEs to minimize repetitive NEPA analyses and focus agency attention on actions with truly significant environmental effects.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) also issued an interim final rule amending its regulations to remove 7 C.F.R. Parts 372, 520, 650, 799, 1970, and 2407 and 36 C.F.R. Part 220 to bring them all within on one set of departmentwide NEPA regulations at 7 C.F.R. Part 1b. The changes are similar to those referenced above. USDA agencies are now able to issue agency-specific procedures through technical and program guidance that aligns with NEPA and the department’s regulations at 7 C.F.R. 1b.

“USDA is updating and modernizing NEPA so projects critical to the health of our forests and prosperity of rural America are not stymied and delayed for years,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. “So many beneficial and common-sense infrastructure and energy projects have been stymied and delayed in litigation and endless reviews. This will allow USDA officials to concentrate resources on projects the public needs while also ensuring we honor the department’s legacy of land stewardship.”

Other Agencies

The Department of the Army and the Department of the Navy issued interim final rules stating that they will rescind their NEPA regulations that supplemented the CEQ regulations at 32 C.F.R. Part 651 for the Army, and 32 C.F.R. Part 775 for the Navy, and will follow the overall Department of Defense (DOD) departmentwide NEPA procedures.

DOD explains that these procedures “seek to faithfully implement the recent significant changes to NEPA prescribed by Congress, instruction provided by the president, and guidance provided by the Supreme Court. They streamline and improve efficiency of the environmental review process; expedite project delivery; and ensure that NEPA documents inform and, to the extent appropriate, involve the public, focus on the significant issues that require analysis, and foster informed decisionmaking based on an understanding of the potential action’s environmental impacts.”

Other agencies issuing NEPA rulemakings on July 3 were:

• Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration — final rule amending current regulations at 13 C.F.R. Part 302;
• Department of Energy — interim final rule amending current regulations at 10 C.F.R. Parts 205 and 1021;
• Corps of Engineers — interim final rule removing the bulk of current regulations at 33 C.F.R. Part 230;
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — final rule revising current regulations at 18 C.F.R. Parts 380 and 385; and
• Department of the Interior — interim final rule revising current regulations at 43 C.F.R. Part 46.

For More Information

The July 3 Federal Register is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/07/03.