Company: PED
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001654954-25-003703
Chunk: 32

Company: PEDEVCO CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 32
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 Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”). The NEPA requires federal agencies, including the BLM, to evaluate major agency actions having the potential to significantly impact the environment. In the course of such evaluations, an agency will prepare an Environmental Assessment that assesses the potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of a proposed project and, if necessary, will prepare a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement that may be made available for public review and comment. Authorizations under the NEPA also are subject to protest, appeal, or litigation, which can delay or halt projects. In July 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (“CEQ”) revised the NEPA’s implementing regulations to make the NEPA process more efficient, effective, and timely. The rule required federal agencies to develop procedures consistent with the new rule within one year of the rule’s effective date (which was extended to two years in June 2021). These regulations are subject to ongoing litigation in several federal district courts, and in October 2021, CEQ issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the NEPA regulatory changes adopted in 2020 in two phases. Phase I of the CEQ’s proposed rulemaking process was finalized in April 2022, and generally restored provisions that were in effect prior to 2020. In July 2023, CEQ issued a proposed rule for the Phase II rulemaking. 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.

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On January 20,