On November 16, 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a proposed rule to expedite the environmental review process for certain renewable energy infrastructure projects through the use of categorical exclusions. DOE’s proposal would apply to: (1) installing, operating, modifying, or decommissioning solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on buildings or other […]
NEPA
15 posts
Last Wednesday, July 26, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs in Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic v. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Center for Biological Diversity v. BLM – two lawsuits challenging BLM’s approval of the so-called “Willow Project” on the North […]
On April 20, 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized revisions to the regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The revisions undo changes made to the regulations during the Trump administration, which critics alleged could prevent federal agencies’ considering climate change in NEPA reviews. […]
By Romany Webb During his campaign for President, Joe Biden promised to “use the full authority of the executive branch to . . . significantly reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions,” including by “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” Consistent with that promise, one week after taking […]
This post was co-authored by the Sabin Center’s Romany Webb and Stephanie Jones and Michael Panfil of Environmental Defense Fund. From pipelines destabilized by melting permafrost to power line-sparked wildfires exacerbated by drought, the impacts of climate change are affecting infrastructure across the U.S. and heightening the risks it poses […]
On Friday the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) unveiled new draft guidance on the consideration of climate change in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews. This is intended to replace the final CEQ guidance that was issued by the Obama administration in 2016 and subsequently revoked by President […]
The Sabin Center has recently posted a working paper, Downstream and Upstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Proper Scope of NEPA Review. The paper was co-authored by Executive Director Michael Burger and Associate Director and Fellow Jessica Wentz and will be published in the Fall 2016 edition of the Harvard Environmental […]
Jessica Wentz Associate Director and Fellow Yesterday, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) released the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) for the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The DPEIS accounts for the impacts of climate change on program activities. It does not, […]