The Trump Administration has made permitting reform a centerpiece of its infrastructure agenda. The White House has noted that major projects ‘often take longer to receive Federal permits than to build,’ and the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidance published September 29, 2025 is part of the plan to change that.
If NEPA had a highlight reel for 2025, it would look like this:
• January – The Reset Button: Congress amends NEPA, signaling a new era. Click here to see Scout’s January blog summarizing these changes.
• February – The Chalkboard Wipe: CEQ erases decades of regulations, leaving just the statute and interim guidance. Click here to see Scout’s February blog discussing Executive Order 14154 which prompted the CEQ regulation repeal.
• Spring to Summer – The Waiting Game: Agencies improvise with their own procedures while anticipating direction. Click here to see Scout’s September blog which lists all the NEPA procedures to date.
• September – The New Playbook: On September 29, 2025, CEQ issues NEPA guidance and a NEPA template that, while non-binding, sets the plays agencies are expected to run.
Why This Matters
Think of February’s rule rescission as clearing the chalkboard. Agencies were left with the bare statute and amendments, no more regulatory text to lean on. Now CEQ has handed them a playbook, not a rulebook. It’s non-binding, but it lays out the “expected plays,” and any agency that wants to draw outside the lines will need to explain why.
The courts are moving in the same direction. In Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, (2025), the Supreme Court reversed the D.C. Circuit and held that NEPA does not require agencies to chase far-flung upstream or downstream impacts outside the project under review. The Court emphasized that NEPA’s focus is the “proposed action” itself and that agencies deserve deference in deciding what is reasonably foreseeable and relevant. That aligns squarely with CEQ’s new template, which encourages agencies to limit reviews to effects within their authority and avoid speculative analysis.
What’s in the NEPA Playbook
The CEQ template and recent agency procedures (e.g., Department of Defense [DoD, now Department of War], Department of the Interior [DOI], Department of Transportation [DOT]) point to several big shifts:
• Narrower scope of analysis: focus on reasonably foreseeable impacts, not every ripple effect down the line.
• More flexibility on public involvement: agencies get discretion on when and how to release drafts and take comments.
• Page and time limits reaffirmed: CEQ restates its longstanding benchmarks (1 year/75 pages for EAs, 2 years/150 pages for EISs). They are now positioned as the default expectation in the template. Agencies can deviate, but must explain why.
• One team, one playbook: stronger push for single NEPA documents and clear lead-agency roles.
Side-by-Side Highlights
In their guidance, CEQ directs agencies to review their NEPA procedures as an example of how to utilize and implement the CEQ template. Below we’ve summarized key highlights on how these agencies have utilized and built upon the CEQ template.
1. Scope of Analysis/“Reasonably Foreseeable” Standard
• CEQ template: limits review to proximate, reasonably foreseeable effects.
• Takeaway: Agencies such as DoD, DOI, and DOT follow CEQ’s scope direction, though DoD’s language is explicit about limiting analyses to effects within its authority unless it aids reasoned decision-making.
2. Public Involvement Flexibility
• CEQ template: Gives agencies flexibility in public process design while recommending transparency and reasoned scoping.
• Takeaway: Agencies follow the CEQ’s flexible approach, but DoD and DOI build in discretion to vary comment procedures when the agencies deem it appropriate. Click here to see Scout’s September blog summarizing the different NEPA public involvement approaches.
Scout’s Take on CEQ’s Template for Agency NEPA Procedures
CEQ’s NEPA Procedures Template runs 23 pages and is not a template for drafting EAs or EISs. Instead, it is a model for how agencies should structure their own procedures. As of September 2025, the vast majority of federal agencies with significant NEPA responsibilities have already issued updated procedures that follow the template closely.
From our perspective, the template is best understood as a consistency tool. It gives agencies a shared baseline while leaving room for mission-specific needs. DoD’s June 2025 implementing procedures, for example, track the CEQ model almost verbatim.
Our View: For clients, this means continuity more than change. Because most major agencies are already aligned with CEQ’s template, the practical effect is reinforcement of current practices: tighter page and time limits, clearer scoping standards, and more predictable litigation defenses.
Bottom Line
After nine months of NEPA turbulence, agencies now have a chalkboard that’s been cleared and a playbook full of suggested plays. It’s not binding law, but it will shape how reviews are scoped, how long they take, and how defensible they are in court.
For project sponsors and contractors, the message is clear: the rules of the game have changed, and both CEQ and the courts are making sure the new playbook gets used.
What does this mean for most of Scout clients
For DoD (and by extension Veterans Affairs, which often aligns with DoD/CEQ), CEQ’s September guidance doesn’t dramatically change practice.
CEQ’s 23-page template and guidance basically validate what DoD already adopted. So for most DoD/VA projects:
- Expect continuity, not disruption. The guidance backs up existing DoD procedures.
- Risk is in litigation. CEQ’s template language + the Seven County ruling give agencies cover to keep analyses tight.
So: this guidance confirms the path DoD and many other agencies already took. For the majority of Scout’s clients, the real shift is less about new rules and more about reinforced expectations and clearer defenses in court.
Scout will continue tracking how agencies apply this guidance and how we can help manage your next project. Contact us at hello@scoutenv.com. to start the conversation.
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