Permitting Reform in Action: CEQ Updates Roadmap for Agency NEPA Compliance

In September 2025, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued updated non-binding guidance to federal agencies on how to conduct environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), replacing earlier guidance from February 2025. The update streamlines the permitting process by incorporating a recent Supreme Court ruling limiting the scope of required environmental analysis, removing climate change and environmental justice considerations, and introducing an optional fee-based program that cuts review timelines in half. Agencies are encouraged to revise their own NEPA procedures using a provided template while continuing existing review processes without delay.

Notes

Holland & Knight alert by Jennifer L. Hernandez, Rafe Petersen, Jason A. Hill, Alexandra E. Ward, Aaron Aber, and Maggie P. Pahl analyzing the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) September 29, 2025 updated nonbinding NEPA guidance memorandum (90 FR 47734) that supersedes the February 2025 guidance. Covers incorporation of Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, 145 S. Ct. 1497 (2025) into NEPA review scope, Section 60026 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB, Pub. L. 119-21) creating a new fee-based expedited NEPA review process cutting EIS period from two years to one year and EA from one year to 180 days, the CEQ NEPA procedures template reflecting 2020 Trump-era CEQ regulations (absent climate change and environmental justice references), agency coordination timeline with CEQ’s 30-day review period, and rescission of CEQ’s NEPA regulations under EO 14154 ‘Unleashing American Energy.’ Also references Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 NEPA amendments, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, 4336, 4336e, 4343, and EO 11991.

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