SPEED Act

Increased Efficiency in Reviews: The bill aims to facilitate a more "efficient, effective, and timely environmental review process" (Section 2).

Limited Scope of Environmental Review: Federal agencies will only be required to consider effects that have a "reasonably close causal relationship to, and are proximately caused by, the immediate project or action under consideration" (Section 2, subsection (c)). This prevents the consideration of "speculative" or "attenuated" effects (Section 2, subsection (c)).

Protection Against Delays for New Research: A Federal agency is prohibited from delaying an environmental document or final action while awaiting "new scientific or technical research or information" that was not available by specific deadlines (Section 2, subsection (c)(2)(B)).

Predictable Timelines for Agency Actions: The bill establishes that an agency may not be required to undertake new scientific or technical research unless it is "essential to a reasoned choice among alternatives" and the "costs and time frame of obtaining it are not unreasonable" (Section 2, subsection (b)(3)(B)).

Expedited Judicial Resolution: The bill mandates that courts issue final judgments on claims "as expeditiously as practicable" and provides specific deadlines for both initial judgments and appeals (Section 3, subsection (f)).

Maintenance of Agency Actions During Remand: If a court remands an action to an agency, the "final agency action shall remain in effect while the Federal agency corrects any errors or deficiencies" (Section 2, subsection (b)(d)(2)).

Restricted Judicial Oversight: The bill implements a higher standard for judicial review, where a court may only hold that an agency failed to comply if the court determines the agency "abused its substantial discretion" and "would have reached a different result" (Section 3, subsection (b)).

Limitations on Court Judgment: Courts are prohibited from substituting their own judgment for that of the agency regarding environmental effects (Section 3, subsection (c)).

Strict Deadlines for Filing Claims: Legal challenges must be filed no later than 150 days after a final agency action is made public, which may limit the time available to prepare a claim (Section 3, subsection (e)(1)(A)).

Barriers to Filing Claims for Public Commenters: To bring a claim, a party must have submitted a "substantive and unique comment" during the public comment period that was "sufficiently detailed to put the applicable Federal agency on notice" and shows the party would suffer "direct harm" (Section s 3, subsection (e)(1)(B)(i)).

Reduced Ability to Challenge Categorical Exclusions: The bill states that a claim for review "shall not challenge the establishment of a categorical exclusion" (Section 3, subsection (e)(1)(C)).

Limited Scope for Supplemental Documents: When reviewing supplemental environmental documents issued after a court remand, claims are "limited to information contained in the final supplemental environmental document that was not contained in a previous environmental document" (Section 3, subsection (e)(2)(B)).