Council on Environmental Quality Issues Long Awaited Guidance for Environmental Review Across Agencies
On September 29, 2025, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued long-awaited guidance to formalize agencies’ individual efforts to implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). After rescinding the CEQ regulations that shaped NEPA for 40+ years and bearing witness to various agencies’ independent efforts to issue their own NEPA rules, CEQ issued new guidance to more systematically guide the agencies’ efforts. As CEQ notes, “NEPA implementation reform now has been called for, authorized, and directed by all three branches of government at the highest possible level: Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court.” The guidance reflects direction from each.
D.C. Circuit Upholds U.S. EPA’s HFC Cap-and-Trade Program Under AIM Act
On August 1, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act to phase down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) through a cap-and-trade program. In IGas Holdings, Inc. v. EPA, No. 23-1261, a unanimous panel rejected constitutional and administrative law challenges from refrigerant industry members, finding that the AIM Act provides a clear “intelligible principle” to guide EPA’s allowance allocation. The Court also held that EPA’s decision to exclude 2020 market data from its allocation methodology was not arbitrary and capricious.
Department of the Interior Accelerates Permitting for Oil and Gas, Adopts 28-Day Mandate
In response to the Trump administration’s push to increase U.S. energy output by declaring a national energy emergency, the Department of the Interior (the Interior) has released plans to aid the administration’s goals. These include the Interior’s Emergency Permitting Procedures intended to accelerate and streamline review and approval of certain energy projects, primarily oil and gas. Bypassing formal rulemaking, the Interior cites its authority during emergencies to implement “alternative processes” to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The alternative processes are available to current and future applicants so long as they affirm in writing to the Interior that they qualify for and want to avail themselves of the expedited processes.
Fish and Wildlife Revives Incidental Take Saga Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
In latest saga surrounding the formidable Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA or Act), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on April 21, 2025, withdrew its 2021 advance notice of proposed rulemaking to potentially authorize the incidental taking or killing of migratory birds, consistent with its interpretation of the Act. The 2021 advance notice promised a new regulatory scheme possibly authorizing the incidental take of migratory birds — a practice that would have broken with pre-2017 MBTA interpretation but more practically implement the Act in response to various needs, such as infrastructure permitting and development.
President Trump’s Executive Order Seeks to Initiate Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production
On March 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order (the Order) directing the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and other agencies involved in the financing and permitting process for domestic mining production to develop plans and take specific steps to enhance domestic mineral production in the United States (the U.S.).
The Future of Environmental Review of Federal Permitting Remains Unsteady as White House Seeks to Rescind NEPA Regulations
On February 19, 2025, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) submitted a proposed Interim Final Rule rescinding its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Rule will become effective 45 days after its publication in the Federal Register, marking the end of nearly 50 years of CEQ regulations serving as the foundation for federal environmental reviews. This Interim Rule comes right at the deadline set by President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14154—Unleashing American Energy—which rescinded CEQ’s authority to issue NEPA regulations and revoked President Carter’s EO 11991, which had originally directed CEQ to promulgate implementing regulations.
President Trump’s Executive Order Seeks to Reduce Federal Regulation
President Trump’s January 31, 2025, Executive Order (EO) titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” is a part of the new Administration’s broader policy to reduce federal regulation. The EO finds that federal regulations impose significant costs and complexities on American citizens and businesses that hinder economic growth, innovation, and global competitiveness – and it is the Administration’s policy to alleviate these burdens. This marks a policy change from the approach of the prior administration and is a broader effort than the regulatory reforms of the first Trump Administration.
EPA Publishes First-Of-Its-Kind Framework for Considering Cumulative Impacts Across Agency Actions
On November 21, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published Notice of a newly developed draft framework intended to provide all EPA programs with a shared reference point for determining when and how to analyze or consider cumulative impacts—defined broadly to include the totality of exposures to combinations of environmental stressors and their effects on health and quality-of-life outcomes. Keeping pace with the Biden administration EPA’s environmental justice drive, key goals of the Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts include empowering EPA to (1) more fully and accurately characterize the realities communities face, (2) pinpoint the levers of decision making and identify opportunities for interventions that improve health and quality of life while advancing equity, and (3) increase meaningful engagement, improve transparency, and center actions on improving health and environmental conditions in communities.
Jarkesy’s Potential Implications for EPA Administrative Proceedings
On June 27, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided SEC v. Jarkesy,[1] holding that when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges a defendant has violated securities antifraud provisions and seeks civil penalties, the defendant is entitled to a jury trial in federal court under the Seventh Amendment. The ruling restricts the SEC’s use of its own in-house administrative tribunal with its own administrative law judges (ALJs), which the SEC has historically used to pursue antifraud claims. While the Court’s ruling focuses on the SEC, the principles underlying the decision may be applied more broadly to restrict the ability of other federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to pursue civil penalties via their own administrative proceedings.
Environmental Law Implications of Loper Bright and the End of Chevron Deference
On Friday, June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Chevron v. NRDC in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.[1] Although the Court’s decision to overturn Chevron was anticipated, Loper Bright nonetheless represents a paradigm shift because the Chevron doctrine had been a cornerstone of administrative law for 40 years.
