AGENCY:
Council on Environmental Quality.
ACTION:
Notice of proposed rulemaking.

SUMMARY:
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is proposing to modify certain aspects of its regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to generally restore regulatory provisions that were in effect for decades before being modified in 2020. CEQ proposes these changes in order to better align the provisions with CEQ’s extensive experience implementing NEPA, in particular its perspective on how NEPA can best inform agency decision making, as well as longstanding Federal agency experience and practice, NEPA’s statutory text and purpose, including making decisions informed by science, and case law interpreting NEPA’s requirements. The proposed rule would restore provisions addressing the purpose and need of a proposed action, agency NEPA procedures for implementing CEQ’s NEPA regulations, and the definition of “effects.” CEQ invites comments on the proposed revisions.

DATES:

Comments: CEQ must receive comments by November 22, 2021.

Public meeting: CEQ will conduct two online public meetings for the proposed rule on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, from 1 to 4 p.m. EDT, and Thursday, October 21, 2021 from 5 to 8 p.m. EDT. To register for the meetings, please visit CEQ’s website at www.nepa.gov.

ADDRESSES:
You may submit comments, identified by docket number CEQ-2021-0002, by any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Fax: 202-456-6546.

Mail: Council on Environmental Quality, 730 Jackson Place NW, Washington, DC 20503.

Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name, “Council on Environmental Quality,” and docket number, CEQ-2021-0002, for this rulemaking. All comments received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be private, Confidential Business Information (CBI), or other information, the disclosure of which is restricted by statute.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Amy B. Coyle, Deputy General Counsel, 202-395-5750, Amy.B.Coyle@ceq.eop.gov.

Click here for complete FR notice.