Despite Some Progress, FCC Environmental Review of Satellite Systems Not Expected Soon

In an interview, minority FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told us he doesn't believe the agency will require environmental reviews imminently. However, a now-complete White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) revamp of its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules has the FCC examining the issue during the next 10 months.

The issue will likely require broad public awareness before regulators are motivated to examine the possible environmental impacts of mega constellations, said Tenzie Pugh, superintendent of the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory.

Part of the problem is there’s no clear regulatory home for environmental oversight of satellites, said Aparna Venkatesan, cosmology professor at the University of California, San Francisco. While the FCC is involved with space traffic and space situational awareness, its focus is spectrum, she said. Moreover, the oversight the FCC provides now is inadequate to the scale of the problem. Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce might be a good home for environmental oversight issues, Venkatesan said, adding that she and others have held numerous briefings with federal offices and agencies on the issue, but there’s not been movement toward making OSC the regulatory home for satellite environmental issues.

The lack of cautious assessment of environmental impacts “feels like a free-for-all,” said Venkatesan, who along with Pugh is co-chair of the American Astronomical Society Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment, though the two said they were not speaking on behalf of the AAS committee. “It’s been radio silence” from the Biden administration on the issue, Venkatesan said.

CEQ this spring finalized a rule requiring federal agencies to develop or revise their agency-specific NEPA processes by July 1, 2025. The FCC told us it plans to seek comment on a process for the periodic review of its categorical exclusions and to develop proposed revisions to its NEPA rules by that deadline.

GAO in 2022 recommended that the FCC review whether its licensing of large constellations results in environmental impacts and that it create a process for periodically reviewing its National Environmental Policy Act categorical exclusion of satellites (see 2211030050). In a 2023 letter to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., about the GAO recommendations, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said applying NEPA to activities done primarily in outer space presents a "novel issue." Rosenworcel said she expected that when CEQ finished its then-underway revision of NEPA regulations, the FCC likely would review its NEPA rules, including examining whether licensing large satellite constellations normally doesn't significantly impact the human environment.

Lucas Gutterman, director of the U.S. PIRG satellite campaign, said the group hasn't heard from the agency since its initial outreach. It said the decision 38 years ago to exclude satellites from the environmental review requirements of NEPA came in "a very different world" with far fewer satellites launching. "We can no longer assume what happens in space won't have long-lasting effects on future missions or our atmosphere and Earth," he said.

In an interview, Simington said any FCC move to enforce NEPA requirements on satellite systems would be hampered by the fact it's taken a long while to convince parties the agency even has authority on orbital debris, let alone the NEPA component. He said the commission's orbital debris rules are defensible because they speak to the integrity of the communications system, but it's harder to make a case that issues covered by NEPA affect the integrity of communications.

Still, the FCC clearly has the ability to require full environmental reviews under NEPA, said Ruskin Hartley, ISDA executive director. However, the agency's default is to almost never do them. Hartley said there has been some movement legislatively, with the Dark and Quiet Skies Act (S-4952), introduced last month by Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. The bill would create a Center of Excellence to develop best practices for reducing mega constellations' light and RF interference with scientific and commercial space observations. That would provide the tools to evaluate some of the environmental impacts of satellite systems, he said. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would oversee the center. The bipartisan bill, plus the U.N.'s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space having an agenda item on satellite interference with astronomical observations, "clearly" are steps "in the right direction," Hartley said. The U.S. must play a greater leadership role in ensuring continuing sustainable use of outer space, he added. Meanwhile, litigation isn't off the table when it comes to future FCC license decisions, Hartley said.