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  "description": "Certain small cells, towers, and rural 5G builds may soon bypass NEPA and historic site reviews",
  "path": "/fcc-to-narrow-environmental-and-historic-reviews-of-wireless-build/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-08-04T18:08:18.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_proposed rulemaking_",
    "_a petition_",
    "_in March_",
    "_****There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...****_",
    "There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...",
    "_in May_",
    "_page 42_",
    "_last week_",
    "_effort to scale back_",
    "in a statement"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, August 4, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission will vote Thursday on a proposal that could sharply narrow environmental and historic preservation reviews required for new wireless infrastructure projects.\n\nThe _proposed rulemaking_ builds on _a petition_ from wireless industry trade group CTIA, which urged the FCC _in March_ to no longer consider wireless deployments made under geographic spectrum licenses “major federal actions” under the National Environmental Policy Act. The rulemaking also asks whether the FCC should stop treating such deployments as “federal undertakings” under the National Historic Preservation Act.\n\nIf adopted, the rule could exempt many wireless projects from longstanding review requirements, including: small cell installations, towers under 200 feet that don’t require antenna structure registration, and rural 5G buildouts authorized under geographic licenses.\n\n\n\n_****There's a whole community behind your FREE membership...****_\n\n There's a whole community behind your FREE membership... \n\nWhen the FCC sought comment on CTIA’s petition _in May_, at least nine individual Tribal governments weighed in to oppose the plan, as did eleven state historic preservation offices and a dozen cities and counties.\n\nThose in opposition warned the FCC’s changes, if adopted, could exempt large categories of wireless projects from Section 106 tribal consultations and historic site assessments under the NHPA, a move that several Tribal Nations argued would violate federal trust responsibilities and dismantle longstanding protections for sacred sites.\n\nIn comments filed this spring, the Suquamish Indian Tribe argued that removing NHPA “undertaking” status would eliminate Tribal consultation entirely, and therefore, “contradict the Federal Indian trust responsibility, one of the most important principles in federal Indian law.”\n\nThe Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe similarly warned that the CTIA-backed proposal “would limit government-to-government consultation with Tribal Nations, eliminate cultural resources project reviews, and adversely impact and destroy our tribal cultural resources.”\n\nThe National Congress of American Indians and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers jointly emphasized that the FCC must “meaningfully consult with Tribal Nations in a government-to-government capacity during the pre-decisional period.”\n\nDespite these objections, the FCC has signaled that only public-record filings – not private consultation – will be considered in the official decision-making process. While Tribal leaders were invited to engage in off-the-record consultations with FCC commissioners, the rulemaking clarified that the FCC will only rely on filed comments and presentations placed in the docket in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act.\n\n“To be clear, while the Commission recognizes consultation is critically important, we emphasize that the Commission will rely in its decision-making only on those presentations that are placed in the public record for this proceeding,” _page 42_ of the notice for rule-making stated.\n\n### _Wireless industry argues for 'fresh look' at efforts to permit wireless infrastructure_\n\nMeanwhile, CTIA – backed by carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile and infrastructure firms like Crown Castle – met with FCC staff _last week_ to reiterate support for the proposed rulemaking. The group argued the rule aligns with the federal government’s broader _effort to scale back_ NEPA reviews, and the Supreme Court’s May decision in _Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County_.\n\n“Taking a fresh look at application of NEPA to wireless deployments is… especially appropriate given recent changes to the legal environment, resulting from both bipartisan changes to NEPA and a recent Supreme Court ruling holding that agency NEPA decisions are entitled to substantial deference, and clarifying that NEPA is not intended as a substantive roadblock to infrastructure projects,” CTIA wrote.\n\n“The time is ripe for the FCC to review and rewrite our NEPA rules from first principles,” FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** said in a statement announcing the proposed reform on July 16.",
  "title": "FCC to Narrow Environmental and Historic Reviews of Wireless Build",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T05:48:23.223Z"
}