Modernizing the Commission’s National Environmental Policy Act Rules
Key claim: The FCC is asking whether wireless towers and other communications facilities should fall outside federal historic-preservation and endangered-species reviews, which would make it faster and cheaper to build that infrastructure.
Abstract
(Proposed Rule · Federal Communications Commission) In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) seeks additional comment on the Commission’s National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) framework, to further expedite, simplify, and reduce the costs of environmental review. This includes refreshing the record on the meaning of “undertaking” and the Commission’s approach to implementing section 106 of the NHPA. The Commission also seeks comment on whether activities related to the deployment and operation of communications infrastructure are within the scope of “undertaking,” as well as on other practices or actions the Commission could adopt to provide more efficiency and predictability in the section 106 process. Additionally, the Commission seeks comment on whether communications infrastructure deployments are agency actions subject to the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Why this matters
Communications infrastructure siting is one of the main places where NEPA pulls in parallel reviews under the National Historic Preservation Act and Endangered Species Act, often driving the cost and schedule of tower builds. An FCC decision to carve wireless and similar facilities out of those review layers would both speed buildout and shift how historic and species impacts near communications sites are identified — a sector-specific instance of the broader post-CEQ narrowing of federal environmental review.