Special Public Notice
National Energy Emergency Published: April 4, 2025
Executive Order 14156
SPN-25-20
Baltimore District Philadelphia District Pittsburgh District
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The purpose of this notice is to advise the public that the United States Army Corps of Engineers, North Atlantic Division has approved use of emergency permit processing procedures for Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia, in accordance with 33 CFR § 325.2(e)(4), for the National Energy Emergency established by Executive Order (E.O.) 14156, issued on January 20, 2025 under the President’s legal authorities, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq) and section 301 of title 3, United States code. These special emergency processing procedures (Enclosure 1) have been established pursuant to Sec. 4 of E.O.14156 for activities associated with the identification, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy sources, including energy infrastructure, that require Department of the Army authorization under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and/or Section 103 of the Marine Research, Protection, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, as amended. For the reasons stated in Sec. 1 of E.O. 14156, the President has found that these activities would result in an unacceptable hazard to life, a significant loss of property, or an immediate, unforeseen, and significant economic hardship if corrective action requiring a permit is not undertaken within a time period less than the normal time needed to process the application under standard permitting procedures.
The Corps will utilize to the maximum extent practicable existing Regional General Permits, Nationwide Permits, and State Programmatic General Permits to review authorizations from prospective applicants for the discharge or dredge of fill materials into waters of the United States and/or work in, over or under navigable waters of the United States associated with energy and energy resource activities which are subject to E.O. 14156. For activities utilizing the special emergency processing procedures, reasonable efforts will be made to solicit and address comments from interested federal, state, and local agencies, tribes, and the affected and interested public on the proposed activities under these procedures.
APPLICATION SUBMITTALS: To apply for use of the emergency permitting processes the applicant must follow the existing application submittal processes. In Maryland and Pennsylvania, applications are submitted to the state. Under the joint permit application process in those states, the state forwards the application to the Corps if a Corps review is required. If a Corps review is not required, verification of the state programmatic general permit is issued along with the state’s authorization.
Applications for work in District of Columbia are submitted directly to Corps for review and authorization. Such applications may be submitted directly to the Baltimore District may be emailed to the following address: nab-regulatory@usace.army.mil.
For applications in Pennsylvania that require a review by Pittsburgh or Philadelphia Districts applications can be submitted to the following email addresses:
Pittsburgh District: regulatory.permits@usace.army.mil.
Philadelphia District: philadelphiadistrictregulatory@usace.army.mil.
Emails containing an incoming application should include the project name in the subject line and the request to be reviewed under this process. Emails including attachments larger than 15MB may not be receivable through the email system. Please do not send a share site link in emails for the Corps to download an application as Corps has limited access to such sites for security purposes. Please send an email to the appropriate email address above to request a DOD SAFE link to upload documents larger than 15MB. Additional information on Corps Regulatory Program can be found on our website at: https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory.aspx.
The purpose of this public notice is to announce the establishment approval of the emergency permit processing procedures for the purposes of E.O. 14156 in Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia, and provide information to the public about those special emergency processing procedures. If you have any questions concerning these special emergency processing procedures, please contact Ms. Erica Schmidt at 410-962-6029 or erica.schmidt@usace.army.mil.