Biden Administration Seeks to Restore NEPA, A Core Environmental Law

Slickrock trail in Moab, Utah, where NEPA helped climbers, mountain bikers, and outdoor enthusiasts protect this valued landscape from proposed development projects. Ancestral lands of the Ute.

Written with assistance from Taylor Luneau, American Alpine Club.

If you haven’t heard of it, the National Environmental Policy Act (almost always referred to as NEPA) is a core environmental law that ensures informed environmental reviews on projects that happen on public lands and waters and protects your right to have a voice in what’s happening.

The outdoor community interacts with NEPA in a lot of ways. Rock climbers provide critical feedback to local land managers on things such as climbing management plans, recreation permits and fee structures; backcountry skiers and mountain bikers assist agency officials with travel management plans; and kayakers share insights regarding river management issues such as dam removals. Last year, when the BLM announced it would auction off 85,000 acres surrounding Moab, Utah, including the very popular Slickrock trail, thousands of outdoor enthusiasts spoke out against the proposal—NEPA is what makes these public comment opportunities possible. Over the years, NEPA has given millions of people a voice in decisions about what happens on public land and water.

A few years ago, the Trump administration made some significant changes to how the government implemented NEPA, with the goal of fast-tracking development and limiting public engagement. These changes also excluded many of the effects of climate change from NEPA analyses. At the time, Outdoor Alliance and the wider outdoor community weighed in with their concerns about how rolling back NEPA could affect outdoor recreation. Restoring NEPA was one of Outdoor Alliance’s top priorities for the Biden administration to address.

Recently, the White House announced that it would start to restore and update NEPA. You can read Outdoor Alliance’s comments to the White House right here, but in brief, the proposed changes focus on:

1. Reinstating the requirement to evaluate all relevant impacts including “indirect” and “cumulative” impacts such as climate change.

2. Dropping deference to project applicants to define the purpose and need of a project, an action which often dictates the type of alternatives federal agencies will analyze and should be free from bias and informed by science and public comment.

3. Ensuring that the CEQ regulations are a “floor” and not a “ceiling,” meaning that federal agencies are able to pursue deep and robust analysis of project impacts and are not restricted to do less.

Outdoor Alliance will weigh in on these proposed changes, and you can, as well. The White House will be accepting comments on its proposed changes to NEPA until November 22. You can submit comments directly through the governmental portal, or we’ve made it easy to submit a comment using the tool below: