In a lawsuit in which 21 states challenged the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ’s) 2024 amendments to its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, the federal district court for the District of North Dakota held that NEPA did not give CEQ authority to issue binding regulations. In addition, the court found that CEQ exceeded its authority by making changes to language regarding NEPA’s purpose, by including global effects as a factor for consideration, and by requiring review of categorical exclusions at least every 10 years. The court also found that the CEQ regulatory amendments would be arbitrary and capricious in various respects, though it rejected the plaintiff states’ argument that the 2024 rule changed “fundamental aspects of NEPA” that they had relied on pertaining to greenhouse gas emission quantification. The court vacated the 2024 amendments, leaving in place the 2020 version of the regulations. The court wrote that it “cannot think of a more serious deficiency than an agency acting without Congressional authority” and that even if another court found that there was authority, “the pervasive errors the Court has found through its analysis under the purported authority is equally disconcerting” and “seemingly reflect a motive to change NEPA into something it is not.”

Challenge to Biden administration NEPA regulations.

Iowa v. Council on Environmental Quality

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North Dakota Federal Court Vacated 2024 Amendments to NEPA Regulations

Filed

United States of America

North Dakota

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives