all relevant emergency and other authorities to expedite work on, and completion of, all authorized and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental, and natural resources projects on Federal lands that are within the authority of each of the Secretaries to perform or to advance.
(c) No later than 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall each provide a summary report, listing all such projects that have been expedited (“expedited Federal lands projects”), to the OMB Director, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and the Chairman of CEQ. Such report may be combined, as appropriate, with any other reports required by this order.
(d) Within 30 days following the submission of the initial summary report described in subsection (c) of this section, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall each provide a status report to the OMB Director, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and the Chairman of CEQ. Each such report shall list the status of all expedited Federal lands projects and shall list any additions or other changes to the list described in subsection (c) of this section. Such status reports shall thereafter be provided to these officials at least every 30 days for the duration of the national emergency and may be combined, as appropriate, with any other reports required by this order.
Sec. 6. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Emergency Regulations and Emergency Procedures. The Council on Environmental Quality has provided appropriate flexibility to agencies for complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., in emergency situations. Such flexibility is expressly authorized in CEQ’s regulations, contained in title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, that implement the procedural provisions of NEPA (the “NEPA regulations”), which were first issued in 1978. These regulations provide that when emergency circumstances make it necessary to take actions with significant environmental impacts without observing the regulations, agencies may consult with CEQ to make alternative arrangements to take such actions. Using this authority, CEQ has appropriately approved alternative arrangements in a wide variety of pressing emergency situations. These emergencies have included not only natural disasters and threats to the national defense, but also threats to human and animal health, energy security, agriculture and farmers, and employment and economic prosperity.
(a) No later than 30 days of the date of this order, the heads of all agencies:
- shall identify planned or potential actions to facilitate the Nation’s economic recovery that:
- smay be subject to emergency treatment as alternative arrangements pursuant to CEQ’s NEPA regulations and agencies’ own NEPA procedures;
- may be subject to statutory exemptions from NEPA;
- may be subject to the categorical exclusions that agencies have included in their NEPA procedures pursuant to the NEPA regulations;
- may be covered by already completed NEPA analyses that obviate the need for new analyses; or
- may otherwise use concise and focused NEPA environmental analyses; and
- shall provide a summary report, listing such actions, to the OMB Director, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and the Chairman of CEQ. Such report may be combined, as appropriate, with any other reports required by this order.
(b) To facilitate the Nation’s economic recovery, the heads of all agencies are directed to use, to the fullest extent possible and consistent with applicable law, emergency procedures, statutory exemptions, categorical exclusions, analyses that have already been completed, and concise and focused analyses,
