Company: PED
Filing Date: 2025-10-29
Form Type: 10-K/A
Source: 0001654954-25-012328
Chunk: 47

Company: PEDEVCO CORP
Filing Date: 2025-10-29
Form: 10-K/A
Chunk 47
---
 The proposed Phase II rule restores certain mitigation language from the pre-2020 version of the NEPA regulations, proposes further revisions to ensure the NEPA process “provides for efficient and effective environmental reviews,” and meets environmental, environmental justice, and climate change objectives. The final rule was made effective May 1, 2024. However, at least twenty states challenged the Phase II rule in federal district court. In addition, in January 2025, President Trump issued executive orders directing (i) CEQ to provide guidance on implementing NEPA and to propose rescinding and replacing CEQ’s NEPA regulations with implementing regulations at the agency level and (ii) federal agencies to adhere to only the relevant legislated requirements for environmental reviews and to prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives in such reviews. In February 2025, CEQ sent an interim final rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget that would immediately withdraw the NEPA implementing regulations. The potential impact of further changes to the NEPA regulations and statutory text therefore remains uncertain and could have an effect on our business and operations.

On January 20, 2021, the Acting U.S. Interior Secretary, instituted a moratorium on new oil and gas leases and permits on federal onshore and offshore lands, which a federal court blocked with a preliminary injunction in June 2021, which injunction is being appealed. President Biden resumed onshore oil and gas lease sales on federal lands effective April 18, 2022. A total of approximately 17% of the Company’s acreage in New Mexico, 1% of the Company’s acreage in Colorado, and 4% of the Company’s acreage in Wyoming is located on federal lands. It is currently unclear whether future moratoriums will be imposed, if any, and whether such actions herald the start of a change in federal policies regarding the grant of oil and gas permits on federal lands.

Apart from these ongoing federal and state initiatives, some state and local governments where we operate have adopted their own new requirements on hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas operations and, in some cases, have proposed initiatives restricting or banning oil and gas development altogether. For example, Colorado Senate Bill 19-181 amended state law to give municipalities and counties greater local control over siting and permitting of oil and gas locations, and some municipalities within the state have implemented regulations within their jurisdictions. Any successful bans or moratoria where we operate, whether at the state or local level, could increase the costs of our operations,