Coalition Asks CEQ Not to Proceed with Proposed Changes to NEPA Regulations

The Coalition for American Heritage (“the Coalition”) today submitted a comment letter to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) outlining our concerns about proposed changes to the regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). While the Coalition found some positives in the proposed changes, our review revealed many ways in which these changes would imperil consideration of cultural resources.

In our letter, the Coalition commended CEQ for its effort to acknowledge and improve the role of tribes in the NEPA process by including “tribal” with “state and local” throughout the regulations. We praised the elimination of provisions that limit tribal interest to reservations. Additionally, we were pleased to see more guidance on the preparation of environmental assessments (EAs).

However, many of the other proposed changes worry us considerably. The Coalition highlighted the following areas as posing significant risk to the consideration of cultural resources in the permitting process:

1. New criteria that will result in fewer actions being subject to NEPA review,
2. New rules unnecessarily limiting public involvement,
3. An arbitrary limit on the alternative analysis and impacts considered, leading to poor decision-making,
4. Change to a major definition in way that puts unique resources at risk, creating ambiguity and needless confusion, and
5. A comment process that is far too short and failed to include meaningful government-to-government consultation with tribes.

In light of these serious concerns, the Coalition asked CEQ to reconsider the changes and refrain from adopting the proposed rule.

For a full copy of our letter, click here.