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Signature Sponsor
February 24, 2026 - The Interior Department on Monday unveiled a final rule that pulls back more than 80 percent of the agency’s regulations tied to implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, the nation’s bedrock environmental law. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said NEPA for decades “has been twisted into a weapon” to block energy, infrastructure and conservation projects.
“Under the leadership of President Trump, this administration is fixing that,” Burgum said in a statement. “We are cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, speeding up approvals, and putting Americans back to work, while enforcing NEPA as Congress originally intended.”
The final rule largely adopts a draft the agency released last summer, which was criticized for curbing public input and analysis of energy projects. The draft cut close to one-sixth of the agency’s regulations implementing NEPA, instead switching most of the remaining rules to less-stringent guidelines.
The final rule rescinds more than 80 percent of Interior’s prior NEPA regulations, “with the majority of those regulations moved into a streamlined Departmental NEPA Handbook of Implementing Procedures,” according to the Interior Department.
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