White House Advances New NEPA Rules. Will They Stick?

Jayni Hein’s commentary was included in an Energywire article exploring how the White House is preparing to navigate legal challenges to new permitting rules under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

“Every rule that the administration is publishing is done with a view to making it legally durable and reducing litigation risk,” said Jayni. “These proposed regulations are no exception.”

The concepts outlined in the proposed regulation are not new, she said, as they are already part of many agencies' environmental reviews and NEPA documents.

“But by codifying them and putting them into the regulation, it makes it crystal-clear that these issues — climate change and environmental justice — are an important lens through which agencies should be evaluating projects," said Jayni.