On December 18th, the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a revised draft guidance describing how Federal agencies should assess impacts to climate change in their NEPA project reviews. This new guidance supersedes a similar CEQ document released in 2010 that was never finalized. The new document is significant in that it now requires the assessment of land and resource management actions undertaken by agencies such as the Department of the Interior and the US Army Corps of Engineers. The guidance also extends climate change review to Federally connected projects that result in the “destruction of natural GHG (greenhouse gas) sinks such as forests and coastal wetlands.” If finalized, the CEQ’s latest NEPA guidance could affect projects ranging from oil and gas pipelines to commercial land developments with stream and wetland impacts.
You can read the new CEQ guidance here and provide comments within 60 days of December 18th here. If you are interested in how your long-term or future projects could be impacted, contact me at josiahf@smithmanage.com.