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Office of Indian Energy News
July 10, 2025
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DOE Announces New Updates to National Environmental Policy Act Procedures
On June 30, 2025, the Department of Energy released the following statement:
Energy Secretary Announces Updated NEPA Procedures to End Permitting Paralysis and Unleash American Energy
June 30, 2025
WASHINGTON— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced new updates to the Department’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures, fixing the broken permitting process and delivering on President Trump’s pledge to unleash American energy dominance and accelerate critical energy infrastructure. As part of a government-wide effort to restore common sense to permitting, DOE published an interim final rule rescinding all NEPA regulations and published new NEPA guidance procedures for the Department of Energy.
“President Trump promised to break the permitting logjam, and he is delivering,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “America can and will build big things again, but we must cut the red tape that has brought American energy innovation to a standstill and end this era of permitting paralysis. These reforms replace outdated rules with clear deadlines, restore agency authority, and put us back on the path to energy dominance, job creation, and commonsense action. Build, baby, build!”
“This overhaul restores NEPA to the role originally envisioned by Congress—informing agency decision makers, not needlessly obstructing the development of critical infrastructure,” said Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly. “We’re eliminating the accretion of decades of unnecessary procedure and reestablishing a legally sound permitting regime that is disciplined, predictable, and fast. Agencies finally have the authority to conduct reviews efficiently, avoid duplicative reviews, and deliver timely decisions consistent with the law.”
With President Trump’s leadership, the Council on Environmental Quality coordinated a historic, interagency effort to simplify NEPA compliance, lower construction costs, eliminate years-long delays, and ensure environmental reviews can no longer be used to stall American energy production and infrastructure development. Today’s action fulfils President Trump’s Executive Order 14154, Unleashing American Energy, and implementing reforms enacted by Congress under the 2023 BUILDER Act.
Background:
This effort builds on President Trump’s January 2025 action to rescind CEQ’s outdated NEPA regulations and return the agency to its statutory role of coordinating reform across the federal government, empowering agencies to make timely, lawful permitting decisions. Altogether, these reforms will enable the deployment of more efficient technologies and the better environmental outcomes that they provide.
Key reforms include:
- Eliminating outdated agency procedures, many of which had not been revised since the 1980’s, while maintaining world class environmental standards and allowing America to build again!
- Reducing the maximum Environmental Assessment through Environmental Impact Statement report completion time limitations from three years to two years.
- Requiring the designation of a "lead agency” and empowers the lead agency to clarify responsibilities of all parties involved, requires coordination amongst the agencies, and requires the agencies collaborate on the development of a single environmental document.
- Implementing strict deadlines and page limits. This will provide certainty necessary for investment in American infrastructure and end past practices of paralysis by analysis.
- Providing clear direction that agencies should use common sense, relying only on verified scientific studies that already exist and not contemplating wildly unfathomable scenarios that they do not have legal authority to address.
- Increasing transparency and allowing project sponsors to participate in the process.
- Directing agencies to maximize the use of a streamlined process known as "categorical exclusions" for activities that are regularly conducted and widely understood to not impact the environment.
Additionally, DOE’s NEPA Procedures include discussion of the recent Supreme Court decision in Seven County, which limits requirements for agencies to analyze upstream and downstream Greenhouse Gas (GHG) effects and curtails radical climate change analysis associated with activities outside agency jurisdiction. DOE NEPA analysis should not consider environmental effects of separate projects, especially those over which DOE does not exercise regulatory authority.
DOE’s updated procedures identify specific actions excluded from NEPA review, including issuance of emergency Orders pursuant to section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act and Presidential Permits, and authorizations to import natural gas from any country and to export natural gas to free-trade agreement countries.
DOE’s Interim Final Rule will publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. A PDF of the IFR is available here.
DOE’s updated NEPA guidance documents are available here.
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BIA Soliciting Grant Proposals for $8.5 Million in Energy and Mineral Resource Projects
The Secretary of the Interior, through the Division of Energy and Mineral Development, Office of Trust Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, is soliciting grant proposals from federally recognized Tribal entities for technical assistance funding to identify, evaluate or assess energy or mineral resources and related projects. The Energy and Mineral Development Program supports Tribal efforts to advance Tribal self-governance through developing energy and mineral resources.
Applications are due by August 13. The Interior Department has identified $8,500,000 for investment. The award ceiling is $2,500,000; the award floor is $10,000; and the projection for awards ranges from 10 to 100.
This solicitation seeks proposals for projects that conduct resource inventories and assessments, feasibility studies, or other pre-development studies necessary to process, use and develop energy and mineral resources. These resources and their uses include, but are not limited to, biomass (woody and waste) for heat or electricity; transportation fuels; hydroelectric, solar, or wind generation; geothermal heating or electricity production; district heating; other forms of distributed energy generation; oil, natural gas, and helium; sand and gravel, coal, precious minerals, and base minerals (lead, copper, zinc, etc.).
Projects may include, but are not limited to:
- Initial resource exploration;
- Defining potential targets for development;
- Performing a market analysis to establish production/demand for a commodity;
- Performing economic evaluation and analysis of the resource;
- Baseline studies related to energy and mineral projects; and
- Other pre-development studies or work necessary to promote the use and development of energy and mineral resources.
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Energy Department Solicits Public Feedback to Inform 2026 Critical Materials Assessment
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) public input from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, Tribes, and other stakeholders to inform DOE’s 2026 Energy Critical Materials Assessment. Critical materials, such as neodymium, cobalt, electrical steel, lithium, and gallium, are vital for the U.S. economy, national security, and resilient energy supply chains.
Responses to the RFI must be received by July 25, 2025. Responses are not required for all categories or questions.
To inform the implementation of its critical minerals and materials projects, DOE conducts an Energy Critical Materials Assessment. Materials are evaluated and screened based on their importance to the energy sector and supply risk. The 2023 Critical Materials Assessment considered 38 materials used in eight major technologies, of which 23 materials were ultimately evaluated for criticality.
Specifically, DOE is seeking feedback on energy technologies of interest, materials of interest, supply chain information, market dynamics, challenges to domestic industry, methodology, critical minerals and materials lists, and other issues related to critical materials.
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Regards,
Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs
1000 Independence Ave. SW | Washington DC 20585
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