US debuts new guidance for environmental reviews

Pipelines, federal oil and gas leases, electric transmission lines and other major projects will be subject to more exhaustive climate scrutiny during permitting, the White House said in guidance released today.

The interim guidance offers federal agencies far more explicit instructions on how to analyze greenhouse gas emissions and climate effects when reviewing projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The guidance will take effect on 9 January. The White House intends to make revisions after it receives public comment.

The guidance is part of President Joe Biden's administration push to make climate considerations an explicit part of how the government reaches decisions, following up on past actions prodding agencies to use renewable energy and buy low-carbon materials. The more specific climate guidance will help "avoid legal setbacks" and allow regulators to make more informed decisions, the White House said.

"These updated guidelines will provide greater certainty and predictability for green infrastructure projects" Council on Environmental Quality chair Brenda Mallory said.

The guidance seeks to offer a "common approach" to analyze climate change as part of NEPA reviews, following a period of uneven reviews and former president Donald Trump's administration trying to eliminate climate considerations altogether. Federal regulators have said the lack of explicit guidance in the past have made it hard to decide the level of detail for climate reviews.

The guidance offers best practices for climate reviews, including recommendations to quantify indirect emissions from projects and using a metric named the "social cost of carbon" to provide a dollar estimate of climate effects. The guidance also says federal agencies should the NEPA process to mitigate gas emissions "to the greatest extent possible."

But the White House wants to avoid requiring exhaustive studies of projects likely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The guidance emphasizes a "rule of reason" that says the depth of climate reviews should be proportional to a project's effects, and it says some renewable projects can have a less detailed climate analysis.

Renewable energy groups applauded the guidance. The American Clean Power Association said the guidance recognizes that agencies should not spend time and resources reviewing "relatively minor and short-term greenhouse gas emissions" of building clean energy projects that will reduce emissions over the long term.

Oil and gas industry groups have opposed past attempts for agencies to consider indirect greenhouse gas emissions and seek emission mitigation during the NEPA process. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last year faced intense backlash from the industry over a similar proposal related to natural gas pipeline permitting.

By Chris Knight