Regulatory Alert: AAAE Submits Comments on FAA’s Updated NEPA Implementation Guidance
August 5, 2025
Yesterday, AAAE submitted comments to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in response to the agency’s recently released procedures that implement its responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The new NEPA guidance document, FAA Order 1050.1G, included significant revisions and explained how the agency will conduct NEPA review for any new federal actions moving forward. The updated guidance is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to expedite approvals and provide regulatory certainty in the NEPA review process.
In our comments, AAAE urged FAA to (a) ensure that reasonable deadlines for completing NEPA reviews are enforced, (b) provide airport sponsors with a categorical exclusion (CATEX) for projects that receive minimal or no federal funding in accordance with congressional intent, (c) provide airport sponsors with guidance on how to take advantage of the expedited review provision included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and (d) clarify various provisions that will further streamline the NEPA review process. We also strongly encouraged FAA to maintain a sufficient amount of properly trained staff and conduct outreach to industry, which has many questions regarding the new order, to ensure the administration’s fundamental reorientation of NEPA and meaningful change can occur.
You can read AAAE’s comments here. We appreciate everyone who provided feedback through our survey.
Background. Any actions undertaken by a federal agency, such as issuing a grant or approving an airport layout plan (ALP) update, are subject to the NEPA review process. Since 1978, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has established and enforced the regulations that govern how each federal agency, including the FAA, is required to conduct a NEPA review. On the first day of his administration, President Trump issued an executive order, revoking the authority of the CEQ to promulgate regulations dictating how agencies must comply with NEPA. In February, CEQ rescinded its NEPA regulations and directed each federal agency to update its NEPA implementation guidance no later than February 2026.
In late June, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and FAA released updates to their respective NEPA implementation guidance, known as DOT Order 5610.1D and FAA Order 1050.1G. This was the first major update to FAA’s guidance in over a decade and reflected a series of changes that have been made to NEPA policy over the past five years, including two major rewrites of the CEQ’s regulations, major decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). AAAE provided our initial takeaways from FAA Order 1050.1G in a July 1 Regulatory Alert.
Summary of AAAE’s Recommendations. AAAE provided FAA with a series of recommendations for further updates to Order 1050.1G that were based on survey responses and feedback we received earlier in the year when we developed our “Commonsense Recommendations for Regulatory Reform.” Specifically, we recommended FAA do, among other things, the following:
- Clarify the applicability of FAA Order 5050.4B and other NEPA guidance that has been issued by the Office of Airports for airport-related actions;
- Clarify that the “start date” for the one- and two-year statutory review deadlines for environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs), respectively, begins no later than 60 days after an airport sponsor notifies FAA of its intent to proceed with a NEPA review if the project is on its ALP or in its master plan;
- Establish a 60-day deadline for FAA to process a CATEX determination;
- Clarify that any action to approve, permit, finance, or authorize an airport development project receiving no federal funding or PFC revenue is entitled to a CATEX;
- Preclude FAA staff from preparing an EA when a CATEX is applicable;
- Exclude from the definition of “major Federal action” and the NEPA review process (a) unconditional or mixed ALP approvals of small, insignificant airport development and (b) certain actions associated with non-aeronautical projects that receive no federal funding;
- Clarify that FAA may rely upon pre-existing environmental documents that were prepared more than three years ago and prior to Order 1050.1G taking effect if they meet the appropriate standards;
- Clarify that airport sponsors or their contractors may prepare drafts of all environmental documents and explain to what extent they may prepare draft decision documents on EAs and EISs;
- Coordinate with CEQ to develop and provide guidance for airport sponsors on how to opt into the new expedited NEPA review process; and
- Ensure the Office of Airports stabilizes, if not increases, the number of environmental protection specialists, properly trains its staff on the flurry of major policy changes, and conducts significant industry outreach to answer questions from the airport community.
