NEPA Archives - Energy, Chemical & Environmental Trends Watch

Supreme Court Scales Back the NEPA Roadblock to Infrastructure Projects

Margaret Anne Hill and Stephen C. Zumbrun ●

Overview

On May 29, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a significant decision clarifying the scope of environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) for major infrastructure projects. The Court recognized and reined in what infrastructure practitioners have long understood: NEPA strayed far beyond its “procedural” and “informational” roots to become an obstruction to infrastructure projects across the country.

As brief background, a project developer filed an application with the Surface Transportation Board (“STB”) for a proposed 88-mile railroad line in Utah. The STB, pursuant to its NEPA requirements, issued a 3,600-page environmental impact statement (“EIS”) analyzing the environmental effects of the project and ultimately approved the railroad line. Groups challenged the STB’s approval, and the D.C. Circuit vacated the STB’s decision, ordering the STB to analyze the potential “upstream” impacts of the proposed railroad, which included possible increased oil and gas drilling activities in Utah, and potential “downstream” impacts of the railroad, such as increased oil refining in Texas.

The Supreme Court reversed the D.C. Circuit Court’s prior decision, finding that the D.C. Circuit: (1) did not afford substantial deference to the STB required in NEPA cases, and (2) incorrectly ordered the STB to review the environmental effects of projects separate in time and place from the actual 88-mile railroad under consideration.

LNG by Rail: The D.C. Circuit Vacates a DOT Rulemaking and Outlines a Path for Challenges Yet to Come

Mark R. Haskell ●

In Sierra Club v. United States Dep’t of Transportation[1],a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (“D.C. Circuit”) vacated and remanded a final rule[2] issued by the Department of Transportation (“DOT”) permitting the transportation of liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) in approved rail cars. The final rule was subsequently stayed and never took effect.

DOT Rulemaking & the Sierra Club Decision

The rulemaking proceeding began with an executive order published on April 10, 2019. Then President Trump directed the Secretary of Transportation to propose a rule to permit LNG to be transported in approved rail cars within 100 days from the date of the executive order and to finalize the rule within thirteen months.[3] DOT subsequently issued a proposed rule that would permit the transportation of LNG by rail in DOT-113 rail cars. The proposed rule proposed no limit on the number of cars to be used to transport LNG on a single train and imposed no mandatory speed limit. The proposed rule also included a preliminary environmental assessment finding that the proposed rule would have no significant environmental impact.[4]

The proposed rule was challenged by environmental organizations, states, and the National Transportation Safety Board, all citing potentially grave risks related to potential explosions or fires related to transportation of LNG by rail and separately arguing that the proposed rule failed to mitigate those risks.[5]

Pipeline Update: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? FERC’s Natural Gas Pipeline Greenhouse Gas Analysis Policy

Stephen C. Zumbrun

The Republican majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) has drawn a clear distinction with how and when the Commission will analyze upstream and downstream greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions when reviewing natural gas pipeline projects. But with the recent announced resignation by Republican Commissioner Robert Powelson, a pending Notice of Inquiry issued by the Commission, a separate advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”), and a recent petition to the D.C. Circuit Court, this current established protocol may not last and by this time next year we may see a whole new approach to pipeline GHG analysis coming out of FERC. Continue reading “Pipeline Update: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? FERC’s Natural Gas Pipeline Greenhouse Gas Analysis Policy”

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