While the long-awaited draft of the General Law on Environmental Licensing (No. 3,729/2004) awaits approval by the Chamber of Deputies and later, by the Federal Senate, states have been changing their legislation to update environmental licensing processes. The State of Minas Gerais already enacted its legislation on the subject in 2016. At the end of 2017, it was the State of São Paulo's turn. São Paulo State Decree No. 62,793, of November 17, 2017, amended provisions of the regulations on Law No. 997/1976, approved by Decree No. 6,468/1976, which sets forth rules on the prevention and control of environmental pollution in the State of Sao Paulo. Among the changes introduced by the new decree, which has been in force since December 28, 2017, is the new list of activities subject to environmental licensing (Annex I). The descriptions correspond to the codes used in version 2.2 of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) list. CNAE codes were already used in the Environmental Licensing System of the website of the Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo (CETESB) to help companies to check whether their activities are subject to environmental licensing. This correspondence with CNAE was also used in one of the versions of the table of activities subject to the Federal Technical Register of Potentially Polluting Activities (CTF) of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). Another change is the possibility of simultaneous issuance of a Preliminary License and an Installation License, which, in practice, was already used for licensing of expansion projects for an enterprise that already had an Operating License (LO). The rule contains an annex dedicated to the activities that should request a Preliminary License simultaneously with the Installation License. For the most part, these encompass manufacturing activities, in addition to wholesale trade in products considered hazardous. In addition, the decree expressly determined that the following activities are not subject to renewal of their LOs: land subdivisions, divisions, condominiums, housing estates, agrarian reform settlements, and cemeteries, which are developments that have their own licensing process with CETESB and were already exempt from renewing their LOs. The fees for licensing and review by CETESB were also updated, which increased by more than 100%, significantly burdening companies. The adjustment was attributed to CETESB's loss of revenue due to the municipalization of environmental licensing in the State of São Paulo. In sum, the purpose of the decree was to increase state revenue and establish understandings already generally accepted by CETESB and applied in day-to-day licensing processes with the agency's branch offices. The more controverted issues debated in the General Law on Environmental Licensing were not addressed, such as the possibility that the entrepreneur be given an adversarial proceeding with regard to technical constraints imposed in the licenses granted, exemption from the presentation of the certificate of use and parceling and occupancy of urban land issued by the municipalities and deadlines for review and issuance of environmental licenses. The decree was also silent on other new environmental licensing modalities discussed in the Draft Federal Law, such as the Corrective Operation License (LOC) and the Simplified Environmental License (LAS). Therefore, there is still room for federal law to address important issues for companies. If the text is approved, states will need to adapt their environmental licensing rules and procedures to suit the new general provisions. In the event that there are differing federal and state provisions, the state provisions will only prevail if they are more specific and protective of the environment.