In fulfillment of our responsibilities under Section 309 of the Clean Air Act, EPA issued comment letters on over 350 draft and final Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). These included EISs concerning:

• renewable energy – 9
• oil and gas exploration or extraction - 14
• mining - 10
• transmission lines – 14

EPA met its performance goals in FY 2015 for the NEPA program: 

• 75 percent of the significant impacts identified in EPA’s comment letters on Draft EISs were avoided, minimized, or compensated for (“mitigated”) by the lead Agencies in the Final EISs published in FY 2015.

High Priority Infrastructure Projects

EPA worked with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and other Federal Agencies in support of the Executive Order 13604, Improving Federal Permitting and Review of Infrastructure Projects.

In particular, EPA provided input on metrics needed to measure improvements of environmental and community outcomes, including the continued development and expanded use of the Federal Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard to facilitate early collaboration on infrastructure project reviews.

EPA also worked with federal agencies as a member of the Rapid Response Team for Transportation to improve federal agency coordination and timely completion of permits, reviews, and requirements for high priority infrastructure projects.