SUMMARY:
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is issuing this final rule to revise its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act and its Rules of Practice and Procedure to remove reference to the Council on Environmental Quality’s rescinded regulations.
DATES:
This rule will become effective August 18, 2025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Thomas Blonkowski, Office of the General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8950. [email protected]
Brandon Cherry, Office of Energy Projects, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8328, [email protected]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
1. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is issuing this final rule to remove references to the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) rescinded regulations from the Commission’s part 380 Regulations Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act [1] (NEPA) and part 385 Rules of Practice and Procedure.[2]
II. Discussion
2. The Commission’s regulations, since 1970, have included provisions to implement NEPA.[3] On December 17, 1987, the Commission revised its regulations to include its part 380 regulations implementing NEPA.[4] In the 1987 rulemaking, the Commission explained that the part 380 regulations require applicants to provide specific information on the environmental impacts of a proposed project under the Natural Gas Act or Federal Power Act and develop specific procedures for the Commission to evaluate project applications.[5] The Commission also clarified that it was voluntarily complying with the CEQ regulations.[6]
3. CEQ removed its NEPA implementing regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations, 40 CFR 1500-1508, effective April 11, 2025.[7] As CEQ explained in its rulemaking, Executive Order 14154, Unleashing American Energy,[8] repealed Executive Order 11991, Relating to Protection and Enhancement of Environmental Quality, which directed CEQ to promulgate regulations and required Federal agencies to comply with the CEQ regulations.[9]
4. The Commission’s regulations include reference to CEQ’s rescinded regulations at 18 CFR 380.1, 380.3, 380.4, 380.7, 380.8, 380.9, and 385.2201. As CEQ’s regulations have been rescinded, this rulemaking removes those references and, where applicable, the citation to CEQ’s regulation is replaced with a citation to NEPA.
III. Regulatory Planning and Review
5. Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review, as amended by Executive Orders 14215, Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies and 13563, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, directs agencies to assess the costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives, and if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety effects, distributive impacts, and equity). Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying costs and benefits, reducing costs, harmonizing rules, and promoting flexibility. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has designated this final rule “a significant regulatory action” as defined under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, though not economically significant under 3(f)(1). Accordingly, the Commission submitted this final rule to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Executive Order 12866 review. This final rule is considered a deregulatory action under Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.
IV. Information Collection Statement
6. OMB regulations implementing the Paperwork Reduction Act require agencies to seek approval for information collection requirements imposed by agency rules.[10] This final rule, however, results in no new, additional, or different reporting burdens. This final rule does not require applicants under the Federal Power Act or Natural Gas Act, or indeed any participant in a Commission proceeding, to file new, additional, or different information, and it does not change the frequency with which they must file information.
V. Environmental Analysis
7. Under NEPA, the Commission is required to prepare an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement for any action that may have a significant adverse effect on the human environment.[11] Section 380.4 of the Commission’s regulations sets out categorical exclusions for projects or actions that do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment, which negates the need to prepare an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement.[12] Section 380.4(a)(2)(ii) provides a categorical exclusion for the promulgation of rules that are clarifying, corrective, or procedural or that do not substantially change the effect of the regulations being amended.[13] This rule is clarifying and corrective as it amends the Commission’s regulations to remove references to CEQ’s rescinded regulations. Accordingly, this rulemaking is categorically excluded from the requirement to prepare an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement under that provision.
VI. Regulatory Flexibility Act
8. The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA) [14] generally requires a description and analysis of final rules that will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. This final rule removes now-nugatory references to rescinded regulations, and it will not have such an impact. The Commission therefore certifies that this final rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Accordingly, an analysis under the RFA is not required.
VII. Document Availability
9. In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the Federal Register , the Commission provides all interested persons an opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this document via the internet through the Commission’s Home Page ( http://www.ferc.gov).
10. From the Commission’s Home Page on the internet, this information is available on eLibrary. The full text of this document is available on eLibrary in PDF and Microsoft Word format for viewing, printing, and/or downloading. To access this document in eLibrary, type the docket number excluding the last three digits of this document in the docket number field.
11. User assistance is available for eLibrary and the Commission’s website during normal business hours from FERC Online Support at (202) 502-6652 (toll free at 1-866-208-3676) or email at [email protected], or the Public Reference Room at (202) 502-8371, TTY (202) 502-8659. Email the Public Reference Room at [email protected].
VIII. Effective Date and Congressional Notification
12. The provisions of 5 U.S.C. 801 regarding Congressional review of final rules do not apply to this final rule because the rule concerns the removal of references to CEQ’s rescinded regulations and therefore is a rule of agency procedure or practice that will not substantially affect the rights or obligations of non-agency parties.[15]
13. Under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B), notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures are not required when the agency for good cause finds that notice and public procedure are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest. Notice-and-comment procedures are unnecessary for this rule because it merely clarifies and corrects the Commission’s NEPA procedures by removing references to CEQ’s rescinded regulations.[16] Public comment would serve no purpose here because the Commission’s action removes references to regulatory provisions that, for reasons outside of the Commission’s control, have been rendered legally inoperative. In short, CEQ’s recission of its own regulations provides good cause for the Commission to remove without prior solicitation of comment references to CEQ’s regulations from the Commission’s regulations, so observance of that procedure here is unnecessary.
14. This rule is effective on August 18, 2025.
