Attorney General Bonta Strongly Urges Federal Agencies to Halt Unlawful Rescission of NEPA Regulations

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in submitting comment letters to the Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, and Department of Transportation, strongly urging all federal agencies to refrain from moving forward with their proposed final rules that rescind regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The  rules, which take effect immediately, largely eliminate the agencies’ existing NEPA regulations and replace them with a patchwork of “non-binding” procedures. In the comment letters, the coalition argues that these rules will create significant environmental harm to communities nationwide, reduce public participation, and lead to less-informed environmental decisions. The coalition also argues that the rules are illegal and violate the Administrative Procedure Act and will lead to violations of NEPA. 

“For over 50 years, NEPA has served as the cornerstone of environmental oversight, ensuring that communities have a voice in major projects that affect their air, water, land, and livelihoods,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The rollback of these regulations undermine transparency, weaken environmental safeguards, and silence the very communities – often low-income, rural, and indigenous – that NEPA was designed to protect. Alongside attorneys general nationwide, we will not stand by as the federal government continues to strip away environmental protections and urge all federal agencies to halt this unlawful recission of NEPA regulations immediately.“ 

Enacted in 1969, NEPA is one of the nation’s foremost environmental statutes. NEPA requires that before any federal agency undertakes a “major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment,” it must consider the environmental impacts of the proposed action, alternatives to the action, and any available mitigation measures. Numerous federal actions, from the approval of significant energy and infrastructure projects to key decisions concerning the management of federal public lands, require compliance with NEPA.

In the comment letters, the coalition asserts that: 

• The rollback of NEPA regulations strip communities of their voice and protection, allowing polluting projects to move forward without fully considering the environmental and health risks they pose to the people who live nearby. 
• The rules are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion” and “without observance of procedure required by law,” violating the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Excluding indirect and cumulative impacts from consideration in environmental reviews will create confusion in federal project planning, undermine consistent environmental oversight, and allow significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions to go unchecked.  

In submitting the comment letters, Attorney General Bonta co-leads the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia, and Harris County, Texas.  

Copies of the five comment letters can be found here.