On June 30, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy released three revisions to the Department’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing procedures.

These revisions, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation statement, “will slash red tape, accelerate major infrastructure projects, minimize delays, and curb soaring compliance costs.” USDOT has not initiated department-wide NEPA reform in 40 years.

“USDOT’s NEPA reforms will make it possible to deliver roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure projects faster and more affordably,” Secretary Duffy said.

These updates combine six sets of procedures into one USDOT Order, providing one step for NEPA reviews for most of USDOT’s Operating Administrations (OAs). Two other sets of revisions include the NEPA procedures for the FAA and the procedures used by FHWA, FRA, and FTA.

New USDOT NEPA Procedures

The Department released three specific updates to its NEPA implementing procedures:

• Department-wide Order 5610.1D.

• Joint FHWA, FRA, and FTA procedures, 23 CFR Part 771.

• FAA’s Order 1050.1G.

The Department is issuing these updates in coordination with the White House Council on Environmental Quality to ensure “efficient and timely environmental reviews."

Key changes by USDOT and the other agencies include enforceable deadlines and page limits for environmental studies, clarifying that NEPA only kicks in when agencies truly control a project’s environmental footprint, and streamlined “categorical exclusions” that exempt routine, low-impact actions from “lengthy” analysis. The measures would fast-track roads, bridges, broadband, and energy installations.

The revisions across USDOT include the following historic reforms:

• Implement deadlines and page limits on environmental reviews required under recent amendments to NEPA to expedite infrastructure development and reduce costs.

• Provide clarification that NEPA does not apply to every action that a Federal agency takes but only to Federal actions where the agency has sufficient control and discretion to take environmental effects into account.

• Ensure straightforward processes to create categorical exclusions (CEs), adopt other agencies’ CEs to minimize repetitive NEPA analyses, and focus agency attention on actions with significant environmental effects.

Last revised in 1985, modernizing the environmental review process would allow USDOT to follow clear guidance in reforming the NEPA process outlined in President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order, Congress’ BUILDER Act amendments, as part of the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County.