ARTBA Objects to CEQ Repeal of NEPA Reforms

What happened: The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) April 19 repealed major reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) enacted by the Trump administration that would have sped up delivery of transportation projects.

Why it matters: Completion of the federal environmental review process under the NEPA can take as long as seven years for new transportation projects, while the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) sets a goal for completing that review within two years. The reforms made to NEPA in 2020 that CEQ is unravelling were designed to reduce unnecessary delay while maintaining NEPA’s environmental safeguards. In comments submitted last November, ARTBA warned that CEQ’s proposal would ‘preserve the frustrations of NEPA implementation which have featured excessive litigation over projects and procedural minutiae with little or no meaningful relationship to the identification, analysis, and disclosure of the environmental effects of federal actions.’

What’s next: CEQ’s repeal of the Trump era reforms takes effect on May 20. The agency has also indicated it will introduce additional NEPA regulations later this year. ARTBA continues to defend those reforms in federal court.