New NEPA Guidance Can Give Us the Roadmap to a Just and Equitable Clean Energy Future

The document advocates for the Biden administration to use Phase II of its NEPA rulemaking to prioritize environmental justice, climate change considerations, public engagement, and tribal sovereignty. It argues that restoring NEPA regulations will provide the necessary guidance for building resilient clean energy infrastructure—such as wind and solar farms and transmission lines—while protecting marginalized communities and reducing litigation risks.

• The Biden administration has already begun reversing Trump-era NEPA rollbacks; in April 2022, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule that restored the definition of cumulative and indirect impacts and removed the requirement to base an action's purpose and need on the applicant's goals.
• To support environmental justice, Phase II NEPA regulations should require agencies to analyze project alternatives that reduce negative impacts on land, air, and water, and evaluate the interrelated cumulative impacts of multiple pollutants on a community rather than assessing a single project in isolation.
• The author recommends that the CEQ explicitly add climate change to the definition of effects in Phase II regulations and clarify that climate change is the fundamental environmental issue within NEPA's purview to ensure infrastructure is resilient to future climate impacts.
• Proposed improvements to public engagement and tribal relations include mandating a minimum 30-day comment period for environmental assessments and requiring federal agencies to incorporate Tribal Ecological Knowledge and respect treaty obligations and tribal sovereignty.
• Restoring NEPA regulations is presented as a way to facilitate the clean energy transition by providing certainty for investors and project sponsors for wind farms, solar farms, battery recycling facilities, and transmission lines, thereby reducing costly litigation.

APA

Zniber, S. (2023). New NEPA Guidance Can Give Us the Roadmap to a Just and Equitable Clean Energy Future. Earthjustice. https://earthjustice.org/experts/stephen-schima/new-nepa-guidance-can-give-us-the-roadmap-to-a-just-and-equitable-clean-energy-future

Chicago

Zniber, Siham. New NEPA Guidance Can Give Us the Roadmap to a Just and Equitable Clean Energy Future. Earthjustice, 2023. https://earthjustice.org/experts/stephen-schima/new-nepa-guidance-can-give-us-the-roadmap-to-a-just-and-equitable-clean-energy-future.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Zniber |first1=Siham |title=New NEPA Guidance Can Give Us the Roadmap to a Just and Equitable Clean Energy Future |publisher=Earthjustice |date=5 July 2023 |url=https://earthjustice.org/experts/stephen-schima/new-nepa-guidance-can-give-us-the-roadmap-to-a-just-and-equitable-clean-energy-future |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{zniber2023new, author = {Zniber, Siham}, title = {{New NEPA Guidance Can Give Us the Roadmap to a Just and Equitable Clean Energy Future}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://earthjustice.org/experts/stephen-schima/new-nepa-guidance-can-give-us-the-roadmap-to-a-just-and-equitable-clean-energy-future}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }