AGA – Coalition Comments on CEQ NEPA NOPR
On Nov. 22, 2021, AGA joined a broad coalition in comments on the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposal to overturn the 2020 NEPA regulations. AGA and the coalition fully support the fundamental goals of NEPA to better inform agency decisions and the public’s understanding of the potential environmental impacts of federal actions. A federal permitting system that is focused and aligned with these goals is needed for timely investment to address the digital divide in rural and large urban areas, to facilitate construction of public transit to connect communities to job centers, and to build out the energy infrastructure essential to our economic recovery and progress on the climate challenge. The Coalition is concerned that CEQ’s Proposed Rule would not advance, but would rather hinder NEPA’s goal of more informed agency decisions, to the detriment of a broad array of federal and nonfederal projects and activities. The existing regulations promulgated in 2020 added clarity to CEQ’s original 1978 NEPA Regulations by incorporating longstanding interpretations and realigning the regulations with NEPA’s purpose to facilitate timely agency action through informed decision-making. Like the original 1978 regulations, the 2020 regulations balanced priorities and resources “to reduce paperwork, to reduce delays, and at the same time to produce better decisions which further the national policy to protect and enhance the quality of the human environment.”
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