Published October 03, 2024
By Christine Reed
The Center for Energy Regulation and Policy Analysis (CERPA) at the School of Energy Resources (SER) has released a new white paper exploring the evolution of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
Entitled “Navigating the New NEPA Landscape: An Overview of the 2024 Phase 2 Regulations and Recent Statutory Changes,” the paper explores the significant changes to NEPA in recent years, and considers some of the potential implications of these changes for federal agency decision making and environmental outcomes.
The paper was co-written by Temple Stoellinger, Associate Dean and Wyoming Excellence Chair at the in the UW Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and College of Law, and SER adjunct professor, along with Dessa Reimer an attorney at Holland and Hart LLP who specializes in federal permitting issues.
“Our paper provides a comprehensive overview of the significant changes to NEPA in recent years, culminating in the 2024 Phase 2 regulations, and these changes represent a major shift in how this landmark environmental law is interpreted and implemented,” says Stoellinger. “We explore how the new regulations prioritize climate change and environmental justice considerations, and aim to drive more substantive environmental outcomes. Our analysis offers insights into the potential implications of these changes for federal agency decision-making and environmental protection efforts moving forward.”
Enacted in 1970, NEPA remained largely unchanged for four decades until Congress passed the Builder Act in 2023. Statutory changes along with modern regulatory reforms under both the Trump and Biden Administrations — culminating in the Council of Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) 2024 Phase 2 regulations — represent a major shift in the interpretation and implementation of the landmark environmental law.
“The recent statutory amendments placing objective limits on NEPA timelines and document length are seemingly in tension with the latest Phase 2 NEPA Rule that arguably pushes the boundaries of environmental review to the limits of indirect and cumulative effects analysis,” adds Reimer, whose legal practice includes a focus on NEPA. “This tension is likely to play out in coming years with varying results for energy and infrastructure projects across the country and particularly in the Mountain West.”
CERPA released the paper to shed light on the potential impacts in Wyoming.
“CEQ’s efforts to administratively transform NEPA from a procedural statute to a substantive one will have major implications for permitting energy projects in Wyoming,” says CERPA Director Kara Fornstrom. “We thought it was important for the School of Energy Resources to inform policy makers and other interested parties on these regulatory changes and are grateful that Temple and Dessa, leaders in this complicated legal arena, were willing to contribute their talents to this white paper.”
To download the paper, research brief, or other resources released by CERPA, visit the website www.uwyo.edu/cerpa.
