FCC Modernizes its Approach to National Environmental Policy Act Regulations

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a series of permitting reforms that will modernize the agency’s approach to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations and cut billions of dollars’ worth of red tape. Industry projections estimate that, without the reforms in this item, the FCC’s NEPA and historic preservation rules would result in over $2.2 billion in compliance costs over the next decade and a total of at least $7.5 billion in welfare and economic activity loss over that same period. These reforms will unlock that capital so that it can be directed toward faster and more deployments to the benefit of American consumers. The decision clarifies that bureaucratic NEPA reviews have no place across a range of innovative space-based activities regulated by the FCC and eliminates FCC NEPA review requirements for the vast majority of wireless infrastructure deployments. These final rules will eliminate evaluations under the FCC’s current NEPA checklist for more than 14,800 wireless deployments annually, further accelerating builds across the country. The final rules adopted will:

• Determine that the actions associated with space-based operations, including the launch, deployment, and operation of space stations, are not major Federal action (MFA).
• Codify the statutory definition of MFA, the prerequisite to trigger federal agencies’ NEPA obligations in the FCC’s rules and clarify which Commission actions are MFAs.
• Outline that deployments of facilities in connection with geographic area spectrum licenses, site-based spectrum licenses, unlicensed or licensed-by-rule wireless services, and satellite earth stations do not qualify as MFAs to the extent the deployments do not require antenna structure registration.
• Revise the FCC’s NEPA rules to ensure they comport with the amended NEPA statute and accelerate the federal permitting process.
• Streamline other aspects of the FCC’s NEPA rules, including the Commission’s requirements for categorical exclusions, environmental assessments, environmental impact statements, joint agency actions, and emergency situations.