in effect
This is an “interim final rule” from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) that also asks the public for comments. It deletes CEQ’s long-standing regulations for carrying out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) from the Code of Federal Regulations. CEQ says it is doing this to comply with Executive Order 14154, which rescinded the 1977 executive order (E.O. 11991) that had originally told CEQ to write those regulations.
It removes all of CEQ’s NEPA regulations — 40 CFR parts 1500, 1501, 1502, 1503, 1504, 1505, 1506, 1507, and 1508. The removal takes effect April 11, 2025, and the rule’s DATES section sets a comment deadline of March 27, 2025 (though the body text elsewhere refers to a 30-day comment window and an April 11, 2025 date). CEQ states two reasons: the President rescinded the executive order that was its claimed basis for the rules, and CEQ now believes NEPA itself may not give it authority to issue rules that bind other agencies. NEPA the statute stays in force — this rule does not repeal the law or change what NEPA requires; it only strikes CEQ’s own government-wide implementing regulations. CEQ notes a federal court in North Dakota vacated its most recent (Phase 2) NEPA rule on February 3, 2025, finding CEQ lacked authority to issue binding rules.
Federal agencies that conduct environmental reviews are the main parties affected; CEQ says they still have their own NEPA procedures (citing examples at agencies like Energy, FERC, HUD, and the Forest Service) and remain free to keep or amend them. Project sponsors and members of the public who take part in environmental reviews are affected indirectly, since the shared CEQ rulebook they operated under is being removed, though CEQ says agencies should still rely on the version of the rules in effect when a past action was completed. The public could also weigh in through the comment process, though CEQ states the comments cannot override the President’s decision to remove the regulations.