The U.S. Senate on Aug. 4 voted to reverse the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) rulemaking related to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Implementing Regulations Revisions. The vote was praised by the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA).
“ARA applauds the Senate for adopting this important
Congressional Review Act (CRA) proposal sponsored by Senator Dan Sullivan
because it is critical for the administration to reinstitute these necessary
NEPA reforms to speed up the approval process for much-needed infrastructure
projects,” said Richard Gupton, ARA’s Senior Vice President of Public Policy
& Counsel.
“These reforms will create economic development,
jobs and address supply chain disruptions, which will especially benefit the
rural communities where agricultural retailers and their farmer customers live
and work,” Gupton added. “We urge the U.S. House of Representatives to pass
this important resolution as soon as possible.”
CEQ in July 2020 made wholesale revisions to the NEPA regulations for the first time in more than 40 years. In response to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 13990 on Jan. 20, 2021, however, CEQ said it would engage in a “comprehensive review” of the 2020 rule and launch a phased approach to amending the NEPA regulations.
CEQ issued an Interim Final Rule on June 29, 2021, which gave federal agencies a deadline of Sept. 14, 2023, to develop or update their NEPA implementing procedures to conform to the CEQ regulations.
CEQ then issued the Phase 1 Final Rule on April 20, 2022, which the agency said finalizes a “narrow set of changes” to restore regulatory provisions that were in effect for decades before the 2020 rule and “better align the NEPA regulations with CEQ and agency expertise, as well as NEPA’s statutory goals and purpose of promoting sound decisions informed by science.”
The updated rulemaking was criticized by The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), which described it as “more red tape, duplicative regulations, and delays that will cost consumers in the end.” TFI said a more efficient permitting process is needed to ensure that critical mining projects in the U.S. have a clear path to compliance and approval (GM April 29, p. 30).