In an effort to expedite the federal permitting process, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) rescinded its power to implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), likely achieving the opposite result and further slowing an already long permitting review. The changes, announced via the Interim Final Rule released by CEQ, formally relinquished its authority under the guise of efficiency and expediency, instructing individual federal agencies to continue with existing practices and procedures instead. CEQ concluded that “it may lack authority to issue binding rules on agencies.”

But according to an analysis of CEQ’s decision by the law firm Allen Matkins, this move is likely to create future chaos and uncertainty.

“Without uniform regulations,” stated the firm, “each individual agency might now impose its own requirements on the NEPA process, [resulting] in greater challenges coordinating environmental reviews and permitting among multiple agencies.”

When Trellis reached out to CEQ for comment, a representative responded, “CEQ is not relinquishing its role in NEPA implementation; quite to the contrary — President Trump’s Executive Order, Unleashing American Energy, directs CEQ to work with all agencies as they revise their NEPA implementing regulations.”

This lack of alignment between official rules and administration comments is likely to contribute to the challenges mentioned by Allen Matkins.

NEPA ensures that all large projects seeking federal permitting to break ground prepare an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment. Along with CEQ’s regulations that provide structure for NEPA implementation, the Permitting Council, established in 2015, facilitates the coordination of projects granted federal permits and subject to NEPA.

Changes implemented by the Trump administration include:

• CEQ will no longer have authority over agency implementation of NEPA.
• Each agency will have to revise or include its NEPA implementing procedure to expedite permitting approvals.
• While revising, agencies must exclude analysis of environmental justice in NEPA implementation.

CEQ also included instructions for agencies to narrow the scope of “cumulative effects analysis,” removing much of the review process that investigates environmental impact altogether.

Experts believe that the move will have a negative impact on how many clean energy infrastructure projects move forward overall, and how quickly.

“Thousands of electricity generation projects are awaiting approval to connect to the grid,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in a recent Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. “Millions of engineering construction and manufacturing jobs stalled in part because of our inability build transmission lines. This must change.”

Consider the $1.8 billion Pantheon Solar Project, currently mired in uncertainty. A Nevada solar plant on public land, the project began applying for a permit in 2020 and is still mid-process. According to the Permitting Dashboard — the federal website that catalogs all current and proposed projects applying for federal permits — Pantheon has still not conducted its environmental impact statement. That process was supposed to begin in February, but it’s fair to assume its status is up in the air.

Pantheon is going through the Bureau of Land Management. But it’s fair to assume, given CEQ’s response to Trellis, that the White House will have a say in its future.

It’s also fair to assume that a significant amount of litigation will follow each individual agency’s revised NEPA rules of engagement. Companies and stakeholders currently in the permitting application process should expect implementation delays and legal uncertainties for at least the next year.

In other words, CEQ’s effort to expedite permitting may create a whole new set of roadblocks, defeating the intent of its recent actions.