States’ “Mini-NEPA” Laws

Brigit Rollins, Staff Attorney, National Agricultural Law Center
Jason Roberson, Research Fellow, National Agricultural Law Center

The National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) was enacted in 1969 to “declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment[.]” 42 U.S.C. § 4321. Unlike other environmental laws that would require substantive results, such as curbing industrial pollution or protecting threatened wildlife, NEPA is a procedural statute that requires federal agencies to report on the impacts their actions have on the natural and human environment. To achieve this, NEPA requires federal agencies to draft environmental reports known as environmental assessments or environmental impact statements depending on the action the agency is taking. These reports are highly detailed and required to include not only a discussion of the “reasonably foreseeable environmental effects” of an agency’s action, but also a discussion of possible alternative actions the agency could take and the expected environmental effects of those alternatives. Because NEPA is procedural, it does not require federal agencies to carry out its actions in

In the decades since NEPA became law, several states have adopted procedural laws similar to NEPA that require state actors to document the expected environmental impacts of their activities. Often referred to as “mini-NEPAs,” these laws are highly varied in their language and requirements. Most states did not adopt NEPA verbatim, but many did closely follow the federal model. For example, Montana’s mini-NEPA statute requires the preparation of environmental impact statements and established the Environmental Quality Council to provide oversight to Montana’s mini-NEPA implementation, much like how the federal NEPA created the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to provide oversight of the federal program. However, some states have gone beyond the requirements of the federal NEPA. California, for example, has adopted a mini-NEPA that is “action forcing” in that it requires state agencies not to approve projects with significant unmitigated environmental impacts if there is a workable alternative. This differs from the federal NEPA which is strictly procedural.

In late 2024 and early 2025, two federal courts ruled that CEQ does not have authority to issue implementing regulations for the federal NEPA. Regulations issued by CEQ to administer NEPA had been in place since the 1970s, however in 2025, CEQ rescinded those regulations in response to the court rulings. While NEPA remains a federal statute that federal agencies must comply with, the recent changes have brought a renewed focus to state mini-NEPA laws that were unaffected by the court rulings. This compilation includes the states which have enacted mini-NEPA statutes as of October 15, 2025.