DOE REVISES NEPA REGULATIONS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY

摘要

DOE will save time and money in its environmental reviews of many proposed energy projects under revised regulations approved Sept. 27, 2011, to implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The revisions focus on DOE's categorical exclusion provisions and reflect the first update to these provisions in 15 years. A categorical exclusion applies to a class of actions that an agency has determined normally do not individually or cumulatively have a significant impact on the human environment. In the revised rule, DOE has established 20 new categorical exclusions, most of which include criteria (such as acreage, location and height limitations) that limit the covered actions.