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On May 29, 2026, the NAM filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the Court to promote efficiency in the permitting processes that hinder the construction of infrastructure projects. In this case, the Air Force attempted to renew its three-year permit for the operation of a base on the northern coast of Guam. The base has served as a disposal site for unused military supplies since 1982, with the Guam EPA's approval granted every three years. In 2021, when the Air Force submitted its renewal application, an environmentalist group filed suit to prevent the Guam EPA's approval. They claimed that the Air Force failed to prepare an appropriate analysis of the base's environmental impacts, as required under NEPA. Unfortunately, the 9th Circuit agreed, finding the Air Force failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental impacts of its operation of the base, as NEPA requires.

Our amicus brief argues that NEPA does not apply to the Air Force's operation of the base--the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act does. RCRA specifically governs the protection of the environment from hazardous waste disposal, and it imposes rigorous environmental review requirements that functionally equivalent to those required by NEPA. Mandating compliance with both of these statutes would be a duplicative and costly exercise that would add time to the already lengthy permit approval process.