States Challenge FAA Drone Delivery Environmental Review
Fifteen states and Harris County, Texas filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on September 28, 2026. The petitioners are New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin, and Harris County. The petition asks the court to review and set aside the Federal Aviation Administration's Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision for drone package delivery operations in the United States, signed July 28, 2026. The assessment is the FAA's nationwide environmental baseline for Part 135 drone delivery: the agency intends to rely on it when operators apply for delivery authorizations instead of preparing a separate environmental assessment for each new market, even though the locations of future delivery hubs are not yet known. The petitioners say the assessment violates the National Environmental Policy Act because it clears that nationwide expansion without adequately analyzing safety risks or the environmental effects on the communities where deliveries will occur. Harris County is the only local government among the petitioners and the Texas petitioner: drone delivery already operates in the Houston area, and the assessment will supply the environmental review for expanded delivery operations across Texas. A petition for review states no arguments. Briefing follows after the agency files the administrative record and the court sets a schedule. The filing does not stay the assessment, and the FAA may continue to rely on it while the case is pending.
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Sources
- FAA, Public Involvement and Environmental Review for Drone Operations
- Reuters, US states challenge FAA environmental review of commercial drone package rules (September 28, 2026)
- States Challenge FAA's Nationwide Environmental Review for Drone Package Delivery (Mondaq)