NEPA and Climate Change: Practitioners Should Take Note of CEQ’s New Guidance
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has again offered for public comment draft guidance on how to evaluate the environmental impacts of climate change in analyses prepared under NEPA. This is not the first time CEQ has ventured into the area. In 2010, the Council proposed draft guidance on the same subject but never finalized it, presumably because a substantial number of senators (all Republicans) vigorously opposed the concept that environmental impacts under NEPA might include those associated with climate change. There was no public follow-up. Indeed, nothing appeared from CEQ until December 2014, when CEQ again proposed NEPA climate guidance, and again in draft form. The 2014 draft is the focus of this Comment’s analysis.