Council on Environmental Quality
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1969 |
| Headquarters | 722 Jackson Place, Washington D.C. |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Executive Office of the President |
| Child agency |
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| Website | Council on Environmental Quality |
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices on the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives. The most recent CEQ chairman was Nancy Sutley, who was appointed by President Barack Obama on December 15, 2008, and confirmed by the Senate on January 22, 2009. Sutley announced that she was stepping down as Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality in February 2014. Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20th, 2017, the CEQ website appears to have been taken down, and no successor to former managing director Christy Goldfuss has yet been announced. This action is part of a larger trend of scrubbing materials related to environmental policy and climate change from federal websites since the transfer of power from the Obama Administration.
The United States Congress established the CEQ within the Executive Office of the President as part of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), during the Nixon administration. The CEQ was assigned additional responsibilities by the Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970.
In enacting NEPA, Congress recognized that nearly all federal activities affect the environment in some way, and mandated that federal agencies must consider the environmental affects of their actions during their planning and decision-making processes. Under NEPA, CEQ works to balance environmental, economic, and social objectives in pursuit of NEPA's goal of "productive harmony" between humans and their environment.
The CEQ produces an annual report for the president on the state of the environment, oversees federal agency implementation of environmental impact assessments, and acts as a referee when agencies disagree over the adequacy of such assessments. NEPA tasks CEQ with ensuring that federal agencies meet their obligations under the Act, granting the body a significant role in environmental protection. Through inter-agency working groups and coordination with other EOP bodies, CEQ also works to advance the president's agenda on the environment, natural resources, and energy.
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