A lot is changing in federal environmental review, and anyone developing, buying, financing, or permitting projects may have a hard time keeping up. 

The biggest shift is that NEPA is becoming less centralized and more agency-specific. CEQ finalized the removal of its government-wide NEPA regulations in January 2026, following its 2025 interim rule and Executive Order 14154. The upshot of all this is that project teams now need to pay closer attention to the procedures of the particular agency leading the review.

Congress is also watching the clock. The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) added statutory deadlines, page limits, lead-agency coordination concepts, and procedures allowing project sponsors to prepare environmental assessments or environmental impact statements under agency supervision. In 2025, Congress added a new opt-in fee provision that allows a sponsor to pay for an accelerated schedule: 180 days for an environmental assessment and one year for an environmental impact statement. 

As agencies have issued their own NEPA guidance and regulations—replacing CEQ's rescinded regulations—the theme has been scaling back the scope of NEPA review. While not uniform, these new procedures have largely included the expanded use of categorical exclusions, reduced effects analyses, and removal of public comment and draft publication requirements. They are also implementing FRA requirements for sponsor-led reviews. Simultaneously, agencies have been exploring expedited NEPA review options, like the Department of Interior's 28-day EIS and 14-day Environmental Assessment options. 

For developers, this creates opportunities. Faster review can help a project schedule, but a thin record can still create litigation risk. At its core, NEPA still requires parties to define the federal nexus, identify the lead agency, build the technical record early, coordinate related permits, and understand how state, Tribal, local, and community issues will affect the path to approval. 

The projects that benefit most from the new NEPA landscape will likely be the ones that treat environmental review as part of project design and engage early with the relevant governmental entities.

For more, check out the authors' recent podcast with the ABA Seer Forest Resources Committee.