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
Whether from the perspective of a developer, user or tenant, debt or equity financing provider, the government, or the broader community, the development of a data center project requires a host of considerations to assess...more
The implications of the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision overruling Chevron deference are becoming clearer. Our Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources Group examines how the Eighth Circuit’s Zimmer decision paves the...more
The budget reconciliation bill signed into law on July 4 (also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill”) adds a new provision to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that allows project sponsors/applicants to pay for...more
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) issued a Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) on July 28, 2025, directing NRC staff to proceed with rulemaking to implement the National Environmental Policy Act...more
The Trump administration came into office in 2025 promising to speed federal environmental permitting by, among other things, streamlining compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In the whirlwind of the...more
Recent changes to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) procedures for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), geared at streamlining the environmental review process, may offer some benefits to...more
While shifting political winds don’t literally blow through the trees, their force and impact can cause environmental policy to lurch back and forth. For instance, in 2020, during the final quarter of the first Trump...more
Eighteen Democratic AGs have submitted formal comment letters to several federal agencies urging them to withdraw recently issued final rules that rescind regulations implementing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)...more
On July 23, 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order titled “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.” Released alongside “America’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan,” the Order reflects a...more
There have been more changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and its implementing regulations in the past nine months than perhaps at any point since NEPA was signed into law by President Nixon on January 1,...more
1 See National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations, 90 Fed. Reg. 29498, 29498 (July 3, 2025) (codified 43 C.F.R. Part 46); Procedures for Implementing NEPA; Processing of Department of the Army Permits, 90 Fed....more
On July 23, 2025, the White House released "America's AI Action Plan" (the "Plan"), a comprehensive federal strategy to secure U.S. global leadership in artificial intelligence ("AI"). The Plan is structured around three...more
DLA Piper’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics legal and policy team previously issued a client alert analyzing the White House’s unveiling of “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan” (the Action Plan) and...more
Recently introduced bipartisan legislation aims to significantly streamline the environmental review process for recipients of federal assistance....more
Key Takeaways - What happened: Over the last few weeks, individual federal agencies have issued interim final rules (IFRs) to largely rescind their existing NEPA regulations. Agencies have replaced those regulations with a...more
United States Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) has introduced legislation into the United States House of Representatives titled: Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act (“SPEED Act”)....more
The Executive Office of the President of the United States released a July 2025 document titled: Winning the Race – America’s AI Action Plan (“Action Plan”). The stated objective of the Action Plan is to ensure the...more
The United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, on May 19, 2025, clarifying that the scope of judicial review of federal agency environmental...more
A new executive order seeks to streamline funding for and construction of data center projects by reducing regulatory red tape. On July 23, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order titled “Accelerating...more
Key Takeaways - President Trump issued a new Executive Order (EO) that directs agencies to streamline reviews, prioritize high-capacity projects, and support infrastructure critical to AI and national security. The move...more
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced on July 9, 2025, that it will no longer conduct environmental analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when...more
On July 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) circulated an internal memorandum, requiring 68 different DOI actions related to wind and solar project development to be submitted to the DOI Office of the...more
The Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to explain in its Record of Decision why it selected a project alternative that did not meet the development...more
Fundamental changes are in the works for energy, transportation and water project development as federal agencies are implementing new policies and have begun updating their rules in response to President Trump’s numerous...more
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced on July 9, 2025, that it is updating its practices for reviewing petitions seeking a determination of nonregulated...more