DOE moves to rescind NEPA to fast-track energy projects

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will update the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the bedrock law ensuring that federal agencies consider the environmental impacts of their proposed actions before making decisions, it said June 30.

DOE will publish the interim final rule, “rescinding all NEPA regulations,” July 1, with immediate effect, and it issued new NEPA guidance procedures governing the way DOE enforces the law, the agency said in a press release.

DOE cited a May 2025 Supreme Court case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colo., that narrowed the scope of NEPA by limiting the requirement for agencies to analyze the upstream and downstream greenhouse gas effects of projects seeking approval (OGJ Online, May 20, 2025).

NEPA will no longer apply to the import of natural gas or the export of gas or LNG to countries with which the US has a free trade agreement, according to the new DOE procedures.

The procedures also specify that NEPA will not apply to actions proposed by the Energy Secretary to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), only to the commission’s “final action” – approval, denial, or modification.

DOE said the updates are necessary to “fix the broken permitting process” and accelerate energy projects under the law, which has not been significantly revised since the 1980s.

“President Trump promised to break the permitting logjam, and he is delivering,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “America can and will build big things again, but we must cut the red tape that has brought American energy innovation to a standstill and end this era of permitting paralysis. These reforms replace outdated rules with clear deadlines, restore agency authority, and put us back on the path to energy dominance, job creation, and commonsense action.”

The new rules would trim the maximum environmental assessment and environmental impact statement completion deadline to 2 years from 3 and allow DOE’s “expert judgment” to determine if an environmental impact “rises to the level of ‘significant,’” which triggers NEPA.

The rules also require agencies to: coordinate and develop a single environmental document; implement strict deadlines and page limits; rely on environmental studies that already exist and not create new ones; allow project sponsors to participate in the environmental review process; and it direct agencies to “maximize the use” of a streamlined process known as “categorical exclusions” for activities that are “regularly conducted and widely understood to not impact the environment.”