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CEQRulemakingCEQ-2025-0002

Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations

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Animal Welfare Institute filings
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Animal Welfare Institute filed 1 comment on this docket between Mar 28, 2025 and Mar 28, 2025. 79 other organizations filed here. The comment window closed 488d ago.

What Animal Welfare Institute filed (1)

Mar 28, 2025· Comment from Animal Welfare Institute· CEQ-2025-0002-88345

March 27, 2025 Submitted via Federal eRulemaking Portal Ms. Katherine Scarlett, Acting Chair Council on Environmental Quality 730 Jackson Place NW Washington, DC 20503 Re: Comments on Interim Final Rule on the Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations, Docket Number CEQ–2025–0002 Dear Acting Chair Scarlett: The Animal Welfare Institute ("AWI"), on behalf of our members and supporters nationwide, submits the following comments in strong opposition to the Council on Environmental Quality's ("CEQ") interim final rule that would rescind all versions of CEQ's regulations that implement the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321, et seq. See 90 Fed. Reg. 10,610 (Feb. 25, 2025). AWI is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to alleviate the suffering caused to animals by people. We seek to improve the welfare of animals everywhere: in agriculture, in commerce, in our homes and communities, in research, and in the wild. Since 1951, AWI has advanced its mission through strategically crafted policy and legal advocacy, educational programs, research and analysis, litigation, and engagement with policymakers, scientists, industry, educators, other NGOs, the media, and the public. We seek scientifically-grounded protections for animals in all settings, and robust enforcement of those protections. Since they were issued in 1978, CEQ's regulations have provided a compliance framework for implementing NEPA upon which over 80 federal agencies, project sponsors, environmental consultants, non-governmental organizations, and impacted communities have relied for nearly fifty years. The complete revocation of CEQ's longstanding regulations introduces profound uncertainty into NEPA's environmental review process. Rather than improving project delivery times and increasing efficiency, requiring federal agencies to develop their own NEPA implementing regulations, with the added encouragement to rely on CEQ's flawed 2020 regulations, will sow deep inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and confusion as agencies attempt to determine what the 2020 regulations require and whether, or to what extent, to incorporate those regulations into their own NEPA rules. This will undoubtedly result in higher levels of litigation, greater delays in project approvals, and lower likelihoods of environmental impacts being adequately assessed, which could have devastating impacts on wildlife, habitat, and frontline communities. AWI full comment, which is attached, contains five sections. Section I introduces the purpose of NEPA and the statute's legal framework. Section II addresses our concern that CEQ has violated the Administrative Procedure Act by improperly revoking the regulations through use of an interim final rule. Section III highlights problems with CEQ's resurrection of its flawed 2020 revisions to NEPA's implementing regulations, particularly in regard to elimination of the Cumulative Effects Analysis. Section IV establishes that CEQ has violated the Endangered Species Act by not meeting its obligation to engage in Section 7 consultation, which it is required to do. Lastly, Section V makes clear that CEQ must prepare a cost-benefit analysis to comply with Executive Order 12866, which it has not done. For a full discussion of these concerns, please see the attached comment document. CEQ's interim final rule fundamentally undermines the purpose and intent of NEPA, and sows profound uncertainty in the environmental review process. We request that you rescind the flawed interim final rule and the Feb. 19 memorandum. Thank you for your consideration of these comments. We look forward to CEQ providing detailed responses to the questions posed herein. If you have any questions or if there is any additional information we can provide, please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Animal Welfare Institute

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Abstract

Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations at 40 CFR parts 1500-1508

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Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations (CEQ) — Animal Welfare Institute | OpenPolis