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In a significant victory for permitting reform, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 29 issued an opinion in the case Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, establishing that federal environmental reviews must be reasonable in scope.

On Nov. 12, a federal court of appeals issued a major decision in the Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Administration case concerning the validity of National Environmental Policy Act regulations governing federal environmental reviews. The ruling will potentially have wide-ranging implications for federal permitting actions subject to NEPA reviews.

On May 21, 20 states led by Iowa and North Dakota joined in a lawsuit against the Council on Environmental Quality, seeking to overturn the ABC-opposed National Environmental Policy Act Phase 2 revisions. The complaint asserts that the CEQ’s new regulations impose unnecessarily burdensome and unworkable new rules that will delay critical projects across the country.