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Energy and permitting policy, read from the public record.

Register entry No. 0003Guidance46 FR 18026

CEQ withdraws 18 NEPA guidance documents, including the Forty Questions and cumulative effects memo, 91 FR 39086

The Council on Environmental Quality notice, applicable June 29, pulls nine Federal Register guidance documents and nine agency memoranda dating to 1976 and says more withdrawals may follow. It takes no comment and names no replacements.

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Summary

“Many guidance documents previously issued by CEQ are facially obsolete or are otherwise unaligned with the current state of the law or with Administration policy,” the Council on Environmental Quality wrote in a notice published June 29, 2026, at 91 FR 39086 [1]. On that basis CEQ withdrew 18 documents interpreting the National Environmental Policy Act: nine that had been published in the Federal Register and nine memoranda to agencies, the oldest dated November 19, 1976 [1]. The withdrawals were applicable on publication. The notice is signed by CEQ Chairman Katherine Scarlett and was filed for public inspection on June 26 as FR Doc. 2026-13079 [1].

What the record shows

The notice is two pages long and does not analyze any single document. It gives a list and a general rationale [1].

Federal Register documents withdrawn [1]:

  • Final Guidance for Effective Use of Programmatic NEPA Reviews, 79 FR 76986 (Dec. 23, 2014)
  • Final Guidance on Improving the Process for Preparing Efficient and Timely Environmental Reviews, 77 FR 14473 (Mar. 12, 2012)
  • Final Guidance on the Appropriate Use of Mitigation and Monitoring and Clarifying the Appropriate Use of Mitigated Findings of No Significant Impact, 76 FR 3843 (Jan. 21, 2011)
  • National Environmental Policy Act; Pollution Prevention, 58 FR 6478 (Jan. 29, 1993)
  • Guidance Regarding NEPA Regulations, 48 FR 34263 (July 28, 1983)
  • Scoping Guidance, 46 FR 25461 (May 7, 1981)
  • Forty Most Asked Questions Concerning CEQ’s National Environmental Policy Act Regulations, 46 FR 18026 (Mar. 23, 1981)
  • Publishing of Three Memoranda for Heads of Agencies, 45 FR 59189 (Sept. 8, 1980)
  • Executive Order 12144: Implementing and Explanatory Documents, 44 FR 18722 (Mar. 29, 1979)

Agency memoranda withdrawn [1]:

  • Implementation of Updated National Environmental Policy Act Regulations (June 28, 2024)
  • Guidance on the Consideration of Past Actions in Cumulative Effects Analysis (June 24, 2005)
  • Guidance for Environmental Assessments of Forest Health Projects (Dec. 9, 2002)
  • Cooperating Agencies in Implementing the Procedural Requirements of NEPA (Jan. 30, 2002)
  • Designation of Non-Federal Agencies to be Cooperating Agencies (July 28, 1999)
  • Environmental Justice: Guidance Under the National Environmental Policy Act (Dec. 10, 1997)
  • Guidance on Applying Section 404(r) of the Clean Water Act to federal projects involving dredged or fill discharges (Nov. 17, 1980)
  • Agency Implementing Procedures Under CEQ’s NEPA Regulations (Jan. 19, 1979)
  • Environmental Review Pursuant to Section 1424(e) of the Safe Drinking Water Act and its relationship to NEPA (Nov. 19, 1976)

CEQ gives five grounds, in one sentence: its rescission of its own NEPA regulations, congressional amendments to NEPA, revoked executive orders, “caselaw developments,” and “other intervening events” [1]. It adds that some documents asked agencies for reports by deadlines that have since passed [1]. Copies will remain on CEQ’s website marked “WITHDRAWN” for “historical and informative purposes” [1].

Two commitments close the background section. CEQ “intends to review all withdrawn guidance documents” to decide whether each should be “updated and reissued, replaced, or remain withdrawn,” and it “will also continue to review other guidance documents not currently identified below for consideration for potential future withdrawal” [1].

Which CEQ guidance did the notice leave in place?

The list reaches back to the regulatory era that began with Executive Order 11991 in 1977. It does not touch the guidance CEQ has issued since it stopped writing binding rules. That newer set includes a September 29, 2025 memorandum to agencies on complying with NEPA and revising their own procedures, which replaced initial guidance from February 19, 2025 [7]. It also includes guidance on NEPA in emergencies issued January 21, 2026, and categorical exclusion guidance issued April 9, 2026 [8, 3]. The categorical exclusion notice already rescinded a 2010 document on the same subject, so that one does not appear on the June 29 list [3].

The June 28, 2024 implementation memo is the most recent item withdrawn. It accompanied the Phase 2 rule CEQ finalized on May 1, 2024, at 89 FR 35442, which CEQ has since removed along with every other version of its regulations [1, 2].

Where it sits in the process

The notice is the latest step in a sequence that began with a statute. The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, signed June 3, 2023, added a new section 107 to NEPA, codified at 42 U.S.C. 4336a [5]. It directs participating federal agencies to choose a lead agency “by letter or memorandum,” lets the lead agency designate “any Federal, State, Tribal, or local agency” with jurisdiction or special expertise as a cooperating agency, caps environmental impact statements at 150 pages (300 for “extraordinary complexity”) and environmental assessments at 75, and sets deadlines of two years for an EIS and one year for an EA [5]. Two of the withdrawn memoranda, from 1999 and 2002, covered cooperating agency designations that the statute now addresses directly [1, 5].

On January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14154 revoked E.O. 11991, the order CEQ had cited as authority for its regulations since 1978 [2]. CEQ removed the regulations by interim final rule at 90 FR 10610, effective April 11, 2025, and adopted that rule “without changes” on January 8, 2026 [2]. In the final rule CEQ said that, absent E.O. 11991, it “lacks authority to issue regulations binding on other agencies” [2]. Much of the withdrawn material, including the Forty Questions and the 1983 guidance, interprets those removed regulations by name [1].

The notice cites “caselaw developments” without naming a case [1]. The most prominent recent ruling is the Supreme Court’s May 29, 2025 decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, No. 23-975 [4]. The Court held that NEPA “is purely procedural” and that courts “should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage” agency choices about the depth and breadth of review “so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness” [4]. It also held that the focus of review is the “proposed action,” not “other separate projects” [4]. Cumulative effects are the subject of the withdrawn 2005 memo [1].

Agencies have been rewriting their own procedures in parallel, through interim final rules, proposed rules and updated guidance [2]. FERC’s Order No. 908, Docket No. RM25-11-000, published July 3, 2025, removed references to CEQ’s rescinded regulations from its NEPA rules and its Rules of Practice and Procedure, effective August 18, 2025 [6].

No further step is scheduled. The notice sets no review deadline and promises no follow-up notice [1].

What the record does not show

The notice does not say which documents CEQ expects to reissue, which it expects to replace and which will stay withdrawn [1]. It also does not identify the “other guidance documents” still under review, so the list is open on both ends [1].

It does not say what agencies should do with environmental assessments, mitigated findings of no significant impact or programmatic reviews already in progress that were structured around the withdrawn 2011 and 2014 guidance. The withdrawals carry no transition language [1].

It does not address projects whose records cite the withdrawn documents, or how a court reviewing such a record should treat them. CEQ has said elsewhere that its guidance does “not have the force and effect of law” [3]. Whether the withdrawals change anything in litigation over a specific project is not something the notice takes up.

The record also does not show agency-by-agency reliance. The notice does not survey which agency NEPA procedures incorporate or cross-reference the withdrawn documents [1]. FERC’s 2025 order addressed references to CEQ’s regulations, not to CEQ guidance [6].

Positions on the record

CEQ took no comment on the June 29 notice, and none of the documents behind it record a party’s position on these specific withdrawals [1]. The nearest record is the comment file on CEQ’s 2025 removal of its regulations, which drew about 108,385 submissions, including roughly 90,123 campaign form letters and about 457 unique comments [2].

Supporters in that docket said agencies, “not CEQ, are in the best position” to set NEPA procedures for their own programs, and that dropping a “one-size-fits-all process” would improve efficiency, as CEQ summarized their comments [2]. One commenter said NEPA “has been used by opponents of development to needlessly stifle many important infrastructure projects” [2].

Opponents said the rescission “strips away critical regulatory guardrails and undermines the very purpose of NEPA,” and some predicted more litigation and conflicting court opinions [2]. Others asked CEQ to address topics in its guidance; CEQ answered that “any future CEQ guidance is beyond the scope of this rulemaking” [2]. CEQ called the litigation concern “speculative” [2].

In the January rule, CEQ described its continuing role as consultative: NEPA “requires that agencies consult with CEQ on their methods and procedures,” and “through this consultative role and the provision of guidance,” CEQ is working toward consistency across the government [2]. The June 29 notice lists Jomar Maldonado, CEQ’s Director for the National Environmental Policy Act, as the contact for questions [1].

Reading-room questions

Questions readers bring to this record, answered from the documents cited below.

Which CEQ NEPA guidance documents were withdrawn on June 29, 2026?
Eighteen: nine published in the Federal Register, among them the 1981 Forty Most Asked Questions, the 1981 scoping guidance, the 2011 mitigation and mitigated FONSI guidance and the 2014 programmatic review guidance, plus nine agency memoranda, among them the 2005 cumulative effects memo and the 1997 environmental justice guidance [1].
Is the CEQ Forty Questions guidance still valid?
No. CEQ withdrew it as of June 29, 2026, and says copies will stay on its website marked "WITHDRAWN" for historical reference [1]. The 1978 regulations it interpreted were removed from the Code of Federal Regulations effective April 11, 2025 [2].
Can I comment on CEQ's guidance withdrawal notice?
The notice does not request comments, and the withdrawals applied on publication [1]. CEQ says it will review each withdrawn document to decide whether to update and reissue it, replace it or leave it withdrawn [1].
Does the withdrawal change FERC's NEPA rules for pipelines and hydropower?
Not directly. FERC removed its references to CEQ's rescinded regulations in Order No. 908, effective Aug. 18, 2025, and the June 29 notice does not mention FERC or any other agency's procedures [6, 1].
What CEQ NEPA guidance is still in effect after the withdrawal?
The notice leaves untouched the guidance CEQ issued after rescinding its regulations: the Sept. 29, 2025 implementation memorandum, the Jan. 21, 2026 emergencies guidance and the April 9, 2026 categorical exclusion guidance [7, 8, 3]. CEQ says it is still reviewing other older documents for possible withdrawal [1].

Note on sourcing

The notice lists the withdrawn documents by title and citation only; it does not discuss any of them individually, and descriptions of their subjects here rest on those titles. CEQ had not said which documents it may withdraw next or when, and had issued no public statement beyond the notice as of publication. No agency had announced changes to its own NEPA procedures in response. The commenter positions summarized here were filed on CEQ's 2025 removal of its regulations, not on this notice, which did not take comment.

Sources

  1. Notification of Withdrawal of Guidance Documents, 91 FR 39086 (FR Doc. 2026-13079)Federal Register (Council on Environmental Quality), June 29, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  2. Removal of National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations, final rule, 91 FR 618 (FR Doc. 2026-00178)Federal Register (Council on Environmental Quality), January 8, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  3. Implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act Guidance (categorical exclusions), 91 FR 18836 (FR Doc. 2026-07115)Federal Register (Council on Environmental Quality), April 13, 2026 · federalregister.gov
  4. Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, No. 23-975 (slip opinion)Supreme Court of the United States, May 29, 2025 · supremecourt.gov
  5. Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, Pub. L. 118-5, sec. 321 (Builder Act)U.S. Government Publishing Office (Public Law), June 3, 2023 · govinfo.gov
  6. Removal of References to the Council on Environmental Quality's Rescinded Regulations, Order No. 908, 90 FR 29423 (Docket No. RM25-11-000)Federal Register (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), July 3, 2025 · federalregister.gov
  7. Implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act Guidance, 90 FR 47734 (FR Doc. 2025-19236)Federal Register (Council on Environmental Quality), October 2, 2025 · federalregister.gov
  8. Emergencies and the National Environmental Policy Act Guidance, 91 FR 3446 (FR Doc. 2026-01555)Federal Register (Council on Environmental Quality), January 27, 2026 · federalregister.gov

Subject headings

Cross-references

Other register entries filed under the same subject headings.

  1. No. 0031 · Floor order · 2 shared headingsSenate order sets Nov. 9 cloture vote on motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, the vehicle for a permitting package
  2. No. 0030 · Report · 2 shared headingsFERC opens scoping on Longboard LNG import terminal off Oʻahu, Docket No. PF26-10-000
  3. No. 0026 · Record of decision · 2 shared headingsFERC staff issues final EIS for Sabine Pass Stage 5 LNG expansion, Docket No. CP24-75-001