- This event has passed.
Deadline to Comment on agencies such as Dept of Agriculture or Dept of Interior rewrite of NEPA Rules
August 4, 2025 @ 9:50 pm - 9:59 pm
Trump started revising CEQ rules earlier in the year – saying CEQ rules don’t apply anymore and each agency needs to write their own new versions
So the agencies have been doing that and Federal Register has recently published them
These rules are effective July 3rd, but comments are due August 4th . We assume the deadline is midnight EST.
There are seven agencies revising rules also (scroll down)., with 30 day comment period. We suggest folks object to the comment period for 7 agencies all at once.
SIGN-ON LETTERs
There is an Earth Justice group sign-on comment letter – for groups to sign on to. The deadline to sign on was July 31st COB. The Southern Environmental Law Center has a group sign-on comment letter for Department of Agriculture as does Western Environmental Law Center, who also has a letter for Department of Agriculture and for Interior. SELC sign-on deadline is 8 am MT Monday August 4th and WELC sign-on deadline is 11 am MT Monday August 4th. Contact Nancy at 605-787-6466 or phas.wsd@rapidnet.com to get a copy of those
INDIVIDUAL ACTION
PETITION:
PDF a Wild Earth Guardians has a petition on this issue for individuals to sign,
INDIVIDUAL PRE-FAB ON-Line Letters
The Wilderness Societys’s alert that allows folks to send an email to DOI and USDA. https://act.wilderness.org/a/trumpnepachanges-alert
Nancy can send folks the multi-group sign-on letter drafts, if individuals want to cut and paste or paraphrase from them.
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Forest Service changes deadline _
Link to Federal Register (was due July 30th, but deadline was extended to August 4th)
“This interim final rule modifies the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and removes various USDA agency regulations for implementing NEPA. USDA is taking this action in response to the Council on Environmental Quality’s rescission of its NEPA implementing regulations (which USDA’s NEPA regulations were designed to supplement), statutory changes to NEPA, executive orders, and case law. Comments are voluntarily requested on this action to inform USDA’s decision-making.”
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Links to Federal Register on NEPA rewrite
Dept of Interior (comments due August 4th)
Dept of Agriculture – was due July 30th but extended to August 4th
Dept of Energy – due August 4th
Transportation Dept – due August 4th
Army Corp of Engineers – due August 4th
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Third party review
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We anticipate group sign-on letters becoming available for groups
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Here is a law review by Vinso & Elkins Law
The New NEPA: Federal Agencies Overhaul Procedures for Environmental Reviews
QUOTE FROM THIS ARTICLE:
“On July 3, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission(“FERC” or the “Commission”), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Army Corps”), and the Departments of Energy (“DOE”), Interior(“DOI”), Transportation (“DOT”), Agriculture (“USDA”), and Defense (“DOD”) released sweeping updates to their regulations and procedures implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). These changes come on the heels of the Council on Environmental Quality’s (“CEQ”) interim final rule in February 2025 rescinding its agency-wide NEPA regulations. These changes also follow the Supreme Court’s decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition vs. Eagle County, Colorado(“Seven County”) on May 29, 2025, which reinforced the ability of agencies to establish reasonable limits on the scope of their environmental reviews. The procedures as a whole are more concise than the regulations they replace and hew closely to the first Trump administration’s 2020 NEPA reforms and reflect a government-wide preference for a guidance-based approach to implementing NEPA……..
Comments to DOI, DOE, DOT, and the Army Corps are due on August 4, 2025, while USDA is accepting comments until July 30, 2025. With the exception of FERC, whose rule changes go into effect on August 18, 2025, and DOD, whose guidance became effective on June 30, 2025, changes from all other agencies were effective on July 3, 2025.”