National environmental policy act drones

NASA’s Final Rule amending 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1216.3 – Procedures for Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) were published in the Federal Register on April 11, 2024. The Final Rule is effective April 11, 2024.

Prior to publication of the Final Rule, NASA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on May 3, 2023, in the Federal Register (88 FR 27804) to announce its proposed changes to the NEPA Rule and solicit public and agency comments.

The Final Rule reflects NASA’s incorporation of comments received, as well as the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ’s) determination of consistency with the NEPA implementation procedures in 40 CFR 1500-1800.

The purpose of NASA’s NEPA Rule update was to:

• Better align the rule with the agency’s current and near future actions.
• Adjust the level of NEPA review and documentation required for certain actions.
• Provide more concise descriptions of NASA actions.
• Update existing descriptions of actions normally requiring Environmental Assessments (EAs) and/or Environmental Impact Statements (EISs).
• Update existing Categorical Exclusions (CatExs) contained within 14 CFR § 1216.304.

• Note: By definition, “Categorical Exclusions” are categories of agency actions that normally do not have significant effect on the human environment and are therefore categorically excluded from NEPA EA and EIS review. (14 CFR § 1216.304 includes NASA’s general provisions for compliance with NEPA through the use of CatEx.)

NASA’s NEPA Rule was last updated in 2012. In 2017, CEQ supported NASA’s need to update the rule, thereby initiating the agency’s review and update of its NEPA regulation. Since 2017, several CEQ and congressional actions occurred that affected the timeline and content of NASA’s NEPA Rule review and revisions. These are outlined in the graphic below:

The multi-year NASA NEPA Rule update period provided an opportunity for the agency to:

• Clarify existing CatExs which resulted in amendments to 16 existing categories.
• Identify and add nine new categories of actions eligible for categorical exclusion.
• Update descriptions of actions requiring or excluded from EAs or EISs.