“For too long, outdated and unnecessary environmental rules have slowed America’s builders down.” So wrote FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a Tuesday blog post announcing that the commission will exempt satellites from federal environmental reviews. The agency intends to vote on the change at its Sept. 30 meeting.
The reforms target the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to “assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.” Carr said the move would “cut billions of dollars in red tape” and open the way for investment in telecommunications infrastructure on the ground and in orbit. He added that the decision “will also clarify that bureaucratic NEPA reviews have no place across a range of innovative space-based activities regulated by the FCC.”
The FCC planned to publish the exact text on Wednesday. A senior official told reporters at a press briefing that the reforms would exempt satellite systems and other orbital constellations from the on-the-ground NEPA rules.
Concerns that came before
The FCC has traditionally stayed out of environmental reviews for satellites. In 2022, the US Government Accountability Office urged it to reconsider, noting that tens of thousands of satellites, SpaceX’s among them, could be in orbit by 2030. The GAO report said: “Stakeholders have expressed concerns about changes in the temperature of the upper atmosphere from emissions from launches or deorbiting of satellites and effects on astronomical research from radio transmissions or sunlight reflections.”
Those worries have grown. SpaceX wants to launch another 100,000 satellites for Starlink and up to 1 million for Starmind, its orbital data center system. In 2024 a group of astronomers and space experts asked the FCC to halt new Starlink launches until the US could study the environmental effects, including whether retired satellites burning up could harm the ozone layer.
When Carr’s FCC began a process to modernize its environmental rules, it signaled that it would keep satellites out of NEPA reviews. It described them as “extraterritorial activities” with effects “located entirely outside of the jurisdiction of the United States.”
The space mirror ruling
The commission approved a plan by the US startup Reflect Orbital to launch a satellite carrying a giant mirror that sends sunlight back to Earth at night. Astronomers and environmental groups objected. The FCC treated their concerns as “beyond the Commission’s authority.” It said its remit covers “the licensing and operation of a radio station using radiofrequency spectrum,” not “the licensing and operation of a solar reflector,” and noted it was clearing only one Reflect Orbital satellite.
Environmental groups are expected to oppose the reforms. Carr’s FCC has made US dominance in space and in the satellite industry a main goal and has cited the threat from China. “It is time to build,” Carr said.
SpaceX says it has long worked to keep its satellites from causing light pollution. It has also told the FCC it plans to start small with its orbital data center project “to monitor actual atmospheric effects.”
