Navigating Environmental Restrictions on Alternative Project Delivery for Complex Infrastructure Projects
On-Demand Webinar | Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Regulatory Uncertainty and Linear Infrastructure Projects: Where Are We and What’s Ahead?
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On-Demand Webinar | The New NEPA Regulations: A Practical Guide to What You Need to Know
How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Impacts the Energy Industry
On July 3, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Army Corps”), and the Departments of Energy (“DOE”), Interior (“DOI”), Transportation (“DOT”),...more
In the latest NEPA news, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the withdrawal of its interim guidance on “Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate...more
The NRC recently withdrew its Policy Statement on the Treatment of Environmental Justice (EJ) Matters in NRC Regulatory and Licensing Actions (EJ Policy Statement). The NRC did so in response to Executive Order (EO) 14173,...more
On April 15, 2025, a Presidential Memorandum was issued directing agencies to leverage technology to evaluate environmental permitting decisions and to streamline the review process. The Memorandum directs executive...more
Nineteen Democratic AGs and the Harris County Attorney (Houston, Texas) have submitted comments opposing the President’s Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Interim Final Rule (Proposed Rule), which would repeal CEQ’s...more
On February 20, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) posted a pre-publication notice on its website of an Interim Final Rule rescinding its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act...more
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has issued an interim final rule and corresponding memorandum to heads of federal departments and agencies indicating its intent to rescind prior National Environmental Policy Act...more
This past Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota issued its ruling in the closely watched case of Iowa v. Council on Envtl. Quality, 1:24-cv-089 (D.N.D. Feb. 3, 2025), vacating the Biden...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Jan. 31, 2025, declined a request to review its decision that challenged the authority of the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ), leaving open questions...more
Happy new year, ACOEL colleagues and friends! Following (nearly) four years in the Biden Administration serving as Associate Administrator for Policy at EPA, I am happy to be back in my teaching role at Georgetown University...more
In 2020, President-elect Donald Trump promised to ensure that “America’s most critical infrastructure projects” would not be “tied up and bogged down by an outrageously slow and burdensome federal approval process.” Much of...more
Good morning! This is Akin’s newsletter on climate change policy and regulatory developments, providing information on major climate policy headlines from the past week and forthcoming climate-related events and hearings...more
The U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) on Sept. 27, 2024, published a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) that would make up to $984 million in loans available for a range of projects that...more
This is the final in our series of eAlerts on the Council of Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Phase 2 revisions to its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, published on May 1, 2024 (Final Rule)....more
Republican attorneys general from 20 U.S. states sued the Biden administration on Tuesday, seeking to block new reforms to the U.S. environmental review process for major projects such as transmission lines and wind and solar...more
As discussed throughout this series, mine permitting in the United States is a complicated process. The permitting authorities are a mix of state and federal agencies, and that mix varies depending on where the mine is...more
On May 1, 2024, the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) promulgated the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule (“Final Rule”), 89 Fed. Reg. 35,442 (May 1, 2024), which is better known as Phase 2 of the Biden...more
On March 21, 2024, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to consider President Biden’s three recent nominations to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”): (1) David...more
This article is part of Womble Bond Dickinson’s Energy & Natural Resources thought leadership series titled Striking the Balance: Permitting Reforms for Mining and the Energy Transition. In this series, we’ll explore the...more
Environmental Justice: 2023 Year in Review and 2024 Look-Ahead - As a concept, Environmental Justice, or EJ, has been around for more than 40 years. Beginning as a slogan at protests in Warren County, NC in 1982, EJ...more
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed to amend its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures on November 16, 2023, to include a new categorical exclusion for certain energy storage systems and to expand its...more
On September 21, 2023, the Biden administration outlined plans to expand federal agencies’ consideration of the social cost of carbon—a metric for the economic cost of each additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted to the...more
In a concerted effort to meet the Biden administration’s aggressive carbon-reduction goals, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) unveiled a pre-publication copy of a forthcoming proposed rule on August 10, 2023, aimed at...more
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a proposed rulemaking on 31 July 2023 to implement Congress’s updates to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) recently enacted in the Fiscal Responsibility...more
The energy transition and increased public focus on environmental issues have strained the existing regulatory regime including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA directs agencies to conduct environmental...more