in effect
This is an interim final rule from the Department of the Interior (DOI), effective July 3, 2025, that changes how the Department carries out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It removes most of DOI’s NEPA regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations (43 CFR part 46) and moves those procedures into a separate internal Handbook, while asking for public comment. DOI says it acted because the related government-wide CEQ regulations were repealed (effective April 11, 2025), Congress amended NEPA through the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the Supreme Court’s Seven County decision described NEPA as a “purely procedural” statute.
Most of DOI’s NEPA rules in 43 CFR part 46 are deleted from the CFR, and those procedures now live in the “Department of the Interior Handbook: National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Procedures,” which is posted online but not codified. Three sets of provisions are kept and updated in regulation: emergency responses (46.150), categorical exclusions (46.205, 46.210, 46.215), and applicant- or contractor-prepared environmental documents (46.105 and new 46.107) — the last now extends applicant-prepared documents to full environmental impact statements. Among the categorical-exclusion changes, DOI removes certain “extraordinary circumstances” (paragraphs (c), (i), and (j) of 46.215) and drops two Department-wide exclusions for hazardous-fuels and post-fire activities (46.210 (k) and (l)), which bureaus may still keep in their own procedures. The rule took effect immediately on July 3, 2025 without prior notice-and-comment, and DOI is voluntarily accepting comments (docket DOI-2025-0004) that must be submitted by August 4, 2025. DOI states that ongoing NEPA reviews already sufficiently advanced will continue under the older procedures.
The procedures apply only to DOI’s internal operations, so the most directly affected are DOI’s bureaus and offices that conduct NEPA reviews, plus applicants and contractors who prepare environmental documents for DOI approvals. Members of the public can still read the procedures online and may submit comments by the August 4, 2025 deadline, though the details are no longer in the CFR. The document states these are procedural changes and that NEPA itself imposes no substantive environmental requirements on the outcome of projects.