The White House is set to formally remove Thursday a trove of regulations flowing from the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.
The Council on Environmental Quality’s final rule affirms the Trump administration’s decision to rescind rules around the bedrock federal environmental law — best known by its acronym, NEPA — placing that responsibility squarely with individual federal agencies.
NEPA requires the government to consider a broad range of environmental impacts for major development projects.
In the final rule, which was proposed months ago, the White House responds to more than 100,000 comments on NEPA changes. While some supporters stated that the CEQ is a body that should only consult agencies, others argued that the council limited public input while pulling back the rules and overlooked what authority the agency has.
