Signed into law in 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act is one of
the nation's oldest, most important, and far-reaching environmental laws.
NEPA applies to all federal agencies and most of the activities they
approve or carry out. It sets forth the nation's environmental policy,
requires federal agencies to consider and disclose the environmental
impacts of their proposed actions, and encourages them to make
environmentally responsible decisions. NEPA also spawned many individual
state environmental impact assessment laws, called mini-NEPAs, and an
international environmental impact assessment movement that continues to
grow.
Specifically, NEPA requires federal agencies to prepare Environmental
Assessments or Environmental Impact Statements prior to making decisions.
The President's Council on Environmental Quality, referred to as CEQ,
which was established along with NEPA, has adopted regulations and other
guidance that provide general procedures for federal agencies to follow
when preparing these documents. Moreover, each federal agency has adopted
its own detailed NEPA procedures, and the federal courts, after more than
30 years of litigation, have played a major role in shaping NEPA's
interpretation and implementation.
The NEPA Book: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Comply with the National
Environmental Policy Act is a comprehensive, user-friendly guide to NEPA.
It integrates NEPA's requirements, CEQ NEPA Regulations, and case law with
the authors' practical approaches and recommendations on how to implement
the statute successfully. Since it is written for those who prepare,
review, and use NEPA documents, the book is especially useful for federal
agency NEPA staff and decision makers, consultants, state and local agency
staff reviewing NEPA documents, citizens and interest groups wishing to
influence the process, and NEPA trainers.
It is a user's handbook. The NEPA Book is not a comprehensive legal
reference and does not offer legal advice. Coverage of case law is limited
to those NEPA cases that have had the greatest influence on implementation
of the law. The legal citations in this book are not exhaustive, but refer
primarily to the law itself, the CEQ NEPA Regulations, and CEQ's other
guidance on NEPA implementation. For detailed legal treatment, readers
should consult additional NEPA publications listed in Further Reading at
the end of this book.
The authors wrote Mastering NEPA, the first edition of this book, in the
early 1990s, while conducting NEPA training workshops for governmental,
private sector, and nonprofit clients. In the course of the training,
workshop participants suggested that Mastering NEPA be published as a
comprehensive, objective, legally accurate workbook reference that could
be used long after the training was done.
This second edition, now called The NEPA Book, greatly expands the
information presented in Mastering NEPA, and reflects the most recent case
law, changes in agency practices and procedures, and current trends in
NEPA compliance. The book also includes new case studies and
recommendations for improving implementation along with several entirely
new chapters covering key developments in the 1990s, including:
- Prepararation of legally defensible Environmental Assessments
- Integration of NEPA with other environmental laws
- Use of the Internet in NEPA practice
- The globalization of the law
- Studies of its overall effectiveness over the past 30 years
The authors of The NEPA Book have devoted their careers to implementing
NEPA and state mini-NEPA laws. We have been inspired to do this through
helping our clients meet the challenges of environmental compliance and
through interactions with thousands of NEPA and mini-NEPA practitioners
while leading training courses and giving professional conference
presentations.
Through decades of experience, we remain encouraged about NEPA's
consistent ability to improve environmental quality by improving federal
agency decision making, interagency coordination, and public disclosure.
We have also learned from the many practical frustrations and ambiguities
that can arise in implementing this complex yet flexible law. Throughout
The NEPA Book, we have identified many of these potential pitfalls and
have suggested solutions. We hope that the book will inspire our fellow
practitioners and others interested in NEPA to join us on our quest to
implement the law with energy, excellence, and creativity.
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