President Donald Trump in recent days has relied on a White House policy shop — the Council on Environmental Quality — to take a sledgehammer to what’s known as the “Magna Carta” of environmental laws.
The Nixon-era office swiftly moved to scrap almost five decades’ worth of its own environmental rules aimed at implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, handing the job off to hundreds of federal agencies.
At the center of that contentious policy shift is a looming vacancy, one that conservatives say should quickly be filled by someone who wants to aggressively promote Trump’s plans to boost energy production and speed up the federal permitting process.
“If they’re sincere about wanting permitting reform, they need some really bloodthirsty person in CEQ,” said Myron Ebell, the former director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Ebell led the incoming Trump administration’s EPA transition team in 2016. “They need somebody who isn’t always trying to split the difference,” Ebell said of the potential CEQ leader.
CEQ, established in 1970 as part of NEPA, has long served as the White House’s chief environmental shop. It’s been given varying degrees of influence depending on the presidential administration, but has maintained its purview over the nation’s bedrock environmental law.
Trump, however, has moved to shrink CEQ’s power. He revoked a 1977 executive order from former President Jimmy Carter that gave the council authority to craft rules for how agencies comply with NEPA.
And while Trump has put a slate of leaders into other Senate-confirmed energy and environmental posts, including EPA and the Energy and Interior departments, the Senate-confirmed CEQ post remains vacant with no nominee.
Jim Connaughton, who ran CEQ during the George W. Bush administration, is known for being one of the office’s most influential leaders. He’s watched a series of recent CEQ chairs hold the role in Senate-confirmed and acting roles, and thinks it’s better to have a confirmed official on the job.
“It’s enormously helpful as a matter of political economy for the CEQ chair to be Senate-confirmed,” Connaughton said. “It’s good for the administration, and it’s good for the Congress, because there’s an extra layer of authority” and a “very useful level of accountability and transparency, and that’s what helps move policy along.”
Former President Joe Biden’s CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory was confirmed for the job in April 2021 and stayed until the end of his term. Former President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the office, Nancy Sutley, was confirmed two days after Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
During Trump’s first administration, he nominated Kathleen Hartnett White for the CEQ post in October of his first year in office. She faced opposition in the Senate and ultimately withdrew. The Senate confirmed Trump’s next nominee, Mary Neumayr, in January 2019. Neumayr had previously served as CEQ’s chief of staff.
During Trump’s first administration, he didn’t nominate a CEQ chair until June 2018, more than a year after he took office. The Senate confirmed his nominee, Mary Neumayr, in January 2019. Neumayr had previously served as CEQ’s chief of staff.
Even without a nominee, Trump is moving forward with using the weight of CEQ to fulfill his agenda. The agency this week unveiled an interim final rule that scrapped CEQ rules dating back to the 1970s.
The president earlier this month inked an executive order establishing an interagency “National Energy Dominance Council,” a group that includes the chair of CEQ.
Acting leadership
So who is leading the office under Trump?
Trump’s early moves on NEPA offer some indications about the agency’s leadership.
In a final interim rule this week, which immediately takes effect without public comment, the Trump administration scrapped almost five decades’ worth of rules CEQ has issued.
The council also offered up voluntary guidance for agencies to follow when conducting NEPA reviews in a memo that revealed who is staffing the agency.
CEQ’s chief of staff, Katherine Scarlett, a former Republican Capitol Hill staffer, penned the message to the heads of federal agencies and departments, laying out guidance for reviews.
In the letter, Scarlett directed agencies to follow existing procedures while revising their NEPA regulations, and made clear that environmental justice and cumulative impacts don’t need to be considered.
Scarlett joined CEQ as chief of staff in January, according to her LinkedIn profile. She previously worked for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and at CEQ during the first Trump administration. Scarlett also served as chief of staff to the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council during the first Trump term.
CEQ’s chief of staff is in line to serve as the agency’s acting leader when a chair is not in place, according to the agency’s line of succession.
Ted Boling, a longtime CEQ official who is now partner at the firm Perkins Coie, said he worked with Scarlett at the agency, calling her a “smart person and good to work with.”
Boling said he expects Trump to nominate someone to lead CEQ, especially given the agency’s massive task of helping hundreds of agencies interpret NEPA through their own rules.
“Presumably there will be a chair, and presumably they will retain qualified staff who can help lead the interagency working group and lead what is going to be a herculean effort over the next year,” said Boling.
Others said the lack of a nominee in light of the massive work that CEQ has been tasked with is another sign the Trump administration is moving too quickly without careful consideration.
“They’re winging it, and that’s not a good way for federal agencies to make decisions that are going to affect all of our lives and all of the environment,” said Kristen Boyles, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Northwest Regional Office in Seattle.
“You want leadership in any agency so that decisions … have been considered and well thought through and follow the agency’s mission,” said Boyles.
The White House declined to comment about CEQ’s acting leadership or about plans for a nomination. The administration says its NEPA overhauls are an upgrade from the current system and that the changes will offer more long-term certainty and predictability.
