The Digital Age

NEPA after the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Why now?

The Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA), or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of November 2021 contained several provisions that altered the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process for key environmental and infrastructure projects. These provisions streamlined the review process by shortening time limits for review milestones and proposing page limits for both Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), termed the One Federal Decision.

On May 11, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration released the Permitting Action Plan to accelerate and deliver infrastructure projects on time, on task, and on budget. The Action Plan outlines the Administration’s strategy for ensuring that Federal environmental reviews (e.g., NEPA) and permitting processes are effective, efficient, and transparent. The Action Plan also emphasizes early and meaningful public engagement.

How can we can help.

On June 3, 2023, President Biden signed into law the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (FRA) and on July 1, 2024, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)  Phase 2 NEPA final rule was implemented. The FRA, under the “Builder Act”, codified several changes to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) including changes that support and encourage the use of digital tools that create timely and unified Federal reviews; address delays in reviews; and improve public accessibility and transparency.

Below we focus on some of the areas where we can help our clients improve the timelines and efficiencies of the NEPA process.

  • We support the Lead agency or cooperating agencies in the development and review of NEPA related documentation to ensure all agencies comply with the NEPA process and schedule.
  • We have decades of experience with developing legally defensible NEPA documentation. Including documents that support the decisions of more than one agency.
  • We are experts in understanding the limitations and deadlines involved with creating environmental assessments. Our Digital NEPA tools provide cloud-based interactive documents and graphical presentation that resonate with stakeholders, reducing pages and streamlining timelines.
  • We have worked for years with the Lead agency, in coordination with project proponent or applicant  and Cooperating Agencies to prepare EIS documents, bringing our strong understanding and successful approaches directly to project applicants, helping to develop excellent NEPA documents while maintaining strong coordination with the Lead agency for a smooth and efficient process using our suite of digital NEPA and collaboration tools.

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E-NEPA

Permitting Portal Study – Requires Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to conduct a study of online and digital technologies to help provide for efficient reviews and improve public accessibility and transparency

  • Allow applicants to submit required documents or materials for their project; upload and collaborate with the applicable agencies to edit documents in real-time; upload and display visual features such as video, animation,
  • GIS, and three-dimensional renderings; and track progress of individual applications
  • Use a cloud based, digital tool for more complex reviews, allowing enhanced interagency coordination (including consultation) by:
  • Centralizing the data, visuals, documents, GIS
  • Streamlining communications between agencies and the applicant
  • Allowing for comments and response in one unified ‘portal’
  • Generating reports to aid in organizing and cataloguing public comments, and
  • Be accessible on mobile devices

*Learn more on the U.S. Permitting Dashboard

Benefits of AECOM’s PlanEngageTM for Digital NEPA

Collaborative reporting

Static files and PDF based approaches for environmental reporting are lengthy and time consuming, requiring massive amounts of information to be distributed, reviewed, and collected, slowing down review times and hindering decision making. PlanEngage facilitates collaborative reporting and project planning, enabling information to be shared, reviewed, and updated faster and more effectively.

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Inclusive engagement

PlanEngage enables all stakeholders from public agencies to community members to review projects that are being proposed in their cities, towns, and neighborhoods, Simplifying even the most technical topics and bringing it to life. Mobile friendly information sharing enables widespread community participation at any time from any device.

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Faster approvals

A collaborative multi agency approach ensures that issues are addressed and resolutions can be achieved in real time. PlanEngage streamlines communication and decision making, reducing delays and ensuring that project milestones are met on time.

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Download The case for interactive cloud-based NEPA documents.

Watch the Digital NEPA webinar

E-NEPA Projects

Project

North south corridor study
Project

Small Unmanned Aircraft System Programmatic Environmental Assessment