Supreme Court Decision In Seven County Advances Permitting Reform

In a much-anticipated decision, the U.S. Supreme Court made a major "course correction" to the law governing federal environmental reviews and permitting decisions for infrastructure and other projects under the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"). SeeSeven County Infrastructure Coalition, et al. v. Eagle County Colorado, et al., No. 23-975 (May 29, 2025). The Court's unanimous decision in Seven County builds on the reasoning of the Supreme Court's last NEPA decision, Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen, 541 U.S. 752 (2004), and is in line with the bipartisan zeitgeist that the federal permitting process, like much of the nation's infrastructure, is itself in need of repair. In a decision meant to bring NEPA "back in line with the statutory text and common sense," the Court emphasized that "NEPA is a procedural cross-check, not a substantive roadblock. The goal of the law is to inform agency decisionmaking, not to paralyze it." Op. at 2, 13.