Appeals Court Ruling Wrecks NEPA Standard, Creates Uncertainty Across Energy Sector

Environmental attorney Jason Hill recently spoke with Hart Energy about the recent U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit ruling that could fundamentally alter the landscape of environmental regulation in the United States. The decision, passed by a 2-1 vote, challenges the long-standing authority of the White House's Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) to issue government-wide regulations for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This article highlights the ruling, the CEQ's role in setting NEPA standards and how this decision could significantly impact how environmental regulations are created and implemented nationwide.

The implications of the ruling are broad enough that most U.S. businesses, within and outside of the energy industry, are just beginning to think of the implications, said Mr. Hill.

He added that attorneys within and without government have questioned the CEQ’s role in NEPA law over the decades.
 
“This has been a lingering issue since the earliest days of NEPA and, other than occasional passing references in court opinions, in a footnote, out of the thousands (of cases) that have been decided, no one has taken this up directly,” Mr. Hill stated.
 
This situation creates uncertainty for environmental compliance across the energy industry, he noted.
 
Mr. Hill explained that “if CEQ doesn't have the authority to issue regulations, then every oil and gas operator out there, anybody that has recently had a project approved, relying on the framework of the CEQ regulations for approval, or that's undergoing that process right now—it calls into question what the process should be and should be going forward."

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