Studying NEPA’s Impact on Projects Act
The Studying NEPA’s Impact on Projects Act (H.R. 573) would require the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to publish an annual, publicly available report on how NEPA reviews affect major federal projects and on lawsuits alleging NEPA non-compliance. Introduced in the 119th Congress by Rep. Yakym (joined by Rep. Panetta) on January 21, 2025 and referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, the bill would amend NEPA’s Section 201 to start annual reporting on July 1, 2025. Each year CEQ must post the report on its website and send it to Congress, detailing litigation activity, environmental review lengths and costs, and timelines for completing NEPA reviews, with data broken out by project type and sector. The aim is to improve transparency and provide insight into how NEPA proceedings and litigation influence project planning and approval, without altering NEPA’s substantive requirements. Key elements include: (1) active NEPA-related lawsuits and their outcomes, (2) lengths and trends of environmental impact statements/assessments, (3) the total costs of preparing these documents, and (4) the timelines and milestones of environmental reviews for major federal actions over the prior decade. The data would be disaggregated by sector and made publicly available with the underlying data and citations to related records. While the bill increases reporting and data transparency, it does not modify NEPA’s standards or procedures themselves.
Key Points
- 1Annual NEPA impact report requirement: Beginning July 1, 2025, CEQ must publish a yearly report on its website and provide it to the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
- 2Contents of the report: The report must cover (a) active lawsuits alleging NEPA non-compliance and their statuses/outcomes; (b) lengths and trends of environmental impact statements (EIS) and environmental assessments (EA) over a five-year period; (c) total costs to prepare EIS/EA (including personnel, contractors, and other direct costs, and, if possible, costs borne by cooperating/participating agencies and others); and (d) timelines to complete environmental reviews for major federal actions over the prior ten years, with detailed milestones (from application submission to notice to proceed).
- 3Sector and data disaggregation: Data must be disaggregated by project type and a defined set of “covered sectors” (e.g., aviation and space, broadband, carbon capture and sequestration, conventional and renewable energy, electricity transmission, manufacturing, mining, pipelines, ports and waterways, surface transportation, IT infrastructure, water resources, forestry, and any other sector CEQ designates).
- 4Public availability of data: The report must include the underlying data used to prepare it, plus citations and information needed for the public to locate records related to the court proceedings described.
- 5No change to NEPA standards implied: The bill focuses on reporting and transparency rather than altering NEPA’s substantive requirements or review processes.