Thursday May 29, 2025
E&E News —
The Supreme Court on Thursday placed new limits on environmental reviews for major federal projects such as pipelines and railways.
In a unanimous 8-0 ruling, the justices found that a lower court should more narrowly tailor National Environmental Policy Act analyses to focus on effects that are close to projects under review and fall directly under the purview of approving agencies.
“Simply stated, NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock. The goal of the law is to inform agency decisionmaking, not to paralyze it,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing the opinion for the court, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a separate concurrence with the court’s judgment, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.