Vibrant Environment

By Cymie Payne

Professor, Rutgers University, Dept Human Ecology and Law School; ELI Fellow; Chair, Ocean Law Specialist Group, World Commission on Environmental Law, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) policy and practice has been in flux in recent months. Between executive orders, the recission of longstanding Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) implementing regulations, a much-anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, and announcements by several federal agencies rescinding or modifying their own NEPA regulations, it’s worth a brief recap. 

What is “gold-standard science?” According to an Executive Order published on May 23 meant to guide federal scientific endeavors, it has several characteristics such as being “collaborative and interdisciplinary,” “communicative of error and uncertainty,” and conducted in a manner that is “without conflicts of interest.” Few could argue against these qualities.

On May 28, Germany’s Higher Regional Court of Hamm dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, against the German energy company RWE AG. The court found that Lliuya had not demonstrated a sufficiently imminent or acute threat to his property to justify legal relief. 

Global sea levels rose more than expected in 2024, according to a recent scientific review conducted by researchers from the California Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the Spain and International Space Science Institute. 

The iris is the part of the eye that controls how much light enters into it. In doing so, and through working with the other parts of the eye, it helps us to see and navigate the world around us. 

In a series of separate Executive Orders, administrative memoranda, and Federal Register notices, the Trump Administration has substantially curtailed the role of public comment in federal governmental decisions. Public notice and comment have improved government decisions—not treating government agencies as smarter than the public. Exclusion of public comment from both environmental reviews and rulemaking will undermine this important value. 

Governmental Actions and Project Decisions 

Land Air Water, a student group at the University of Oregon School of Law, hosted the 43rd annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) in Eugene, Oregon, from Friday, February 28 through Sunday, March 2, 2025. PIELC draws activists, advocates, attorneys, scientists, government officials, and concerned citizens together for the oldest and largest public interest environmental law conference in the world. 

On January 21, President Trump signed an Executive Order revoking all prior executive orders that had served as the foundations for environmental justice (EJ) initiatives by the federal government.

Given the doubts raised by recent federal court decisions on the scope of the Council of Environmental Quality’s (CEQ's) authority and the issuance of that agency’s recent “interim final rule” on Removal of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Implementing Regulations, it is unsurprising that NEPA’s fate feels uncertain.