The Biden administration has now reportedly announced new instructions on Friday for factoring greenhouse gas emissions into federal agencies’ environmental studies, restoring Obama-era standards that the Trump administration had abandoned.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) guideline follows an April National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule.
It also incorporates new climate research into Obama-era advice.
The amended advice also instructs agencies to apply a rule of reason, in which more significant projects are subject to more in-depth examinations.
Climate activists praised the guidelines as an improvement and an essential step forward, but stressed it should just be the first step toward more action.
Evergreen co-founder and senior adviser Sam Ricketts claimed the first Obama-era guidelines were very poor even before the Trump administration removed it.
According to him, the new policy offers major changes in how government agencies consider climate issues.
Environmentalists, he says, are hoping to see the outcomes of CEQ’s more specific NEPA rule-making in the near future.
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