API Statement on Final NEPA Phase II Regulations

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2024 – The American Petroleum Institute (API) released the following statement today from API Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Dustin Meyer on the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Phase II final rule: 

“This final rulemaking is the opposite of what is needed to create a durable and predictable permitting review process to unleash energy investment in America. Amid rising demand for affordable, reliable and cleaner energy sources, this final rule adds bureaucratic roadblocks to an already arduous process, jeopardizing the buildout of needed projects and low carbon infrastructure. NEPA will continue to be the most litigated environmental statute, resulting in more uncertainty, more stalled projects, and more taxpayer dollars drained from agencies and the courts.”

Since it was enacted over fifty years ago, the scope of agency reviews under NEPA has expanded dramatically, which has lengthened project review timelines; fostered confusion among project sponsors, regulators, and stakeholders; and resulted in conflicting and divergent judicial decisions. According to CEQ’s most recent calculations:

• The median length for a final environmental impact statement (EIS) is 447 pages, a quarter of documents exceeded 748 pages or more.
• The appendices for final EISs are no different, with a median length of 423 pages and an average length of 1,042 pages.
  • A stark contrast to the lengths specified in the recent legislation - 150 page or less or a limit of 300 pages for unusually complex projects.
• The median time to complete an EIS is 3.5 years, with a quarter of projects taking 6 years or more.

Congress and other stakeholders went through an intensive legislative process to pass a range of mechanisms to meaningfully improve the NEPA process as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act – because fixing our broken permitting process to streamline the construction of new projects is a bipartisan priority. 

API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports more than 11 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our approximately 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, and participate in API Energy Excellence®, which is accelerating environmental and safety progress by fostering new technologies and transparent reporting. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 800 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.To learn more about API and the value of oil and natural gas, please visit API.org.