The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed the first of two planned rules aimed at reversing most of the Trump Administration’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reforms. In a new Insight, Director of Regulatory Policy Dan Bosch analyzes the Phase I rule, noting that its revisions are likely to increase permitting times and uncertainty for applicants and decrease the number of projects ultimately approved.  

Key points:

• The proposed rule will scrap provisions from the Trump Administration aimed at reducing environmental review times for infrastructure and other projects needing federal approval.
• While the proposed rule will revert to policy that led to review times doubling since the 1970s, a second proposed rule will likely go even further.
• It is unclear how the Biden Administration will reconcile its proposed NEPA changes with its claims that the infrastructure projects the changes will slow are critical to the United States’ economic future.

Read the analysis