National Environmental Policy Act

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The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a United States environmental law that was signed into law on January 1, 1970 by U.S. President Richard Nixon. (Although enacted on January 1, 1970, its "short title" is "National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.")

The preamble reads:

"To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation..."

The law applies only to federal agencies and the programs they fund. Essentially it requires that prior to taking any "major" or "significant" action that the agency must consider the environmental impacts of that action.

A major federal action has been expanded to include most things that a federal agency could prohibit or regulate. In practice, a project is required to meet NEPA guidelines when a federal agency provides any portion of the financing for the project. Sometimes, however, review of a project by a federal employee can be viewed as a federal action and would then, therefore, require NEPA-compliant analyses be performed.

The law includes two primary sections:

* The National Environmental Policy
* Action forcing provisions that ensure that agencies consider the National Environmental Policy in their decision making process.

It is the action forcing provisions that have had had the most impact, and for which NEPA is best known. The action forcing provision of the law requires an environmental impact statement (EIS) to be written for all major federal actions which may have a significant impact on the environment. If a major federal action will not have a significant impact on the environment, the agency must prepare a shorter document called an "Environmental Assessment" (EA). Either way, the agency must involve the public by giving them notice and allowing them to comment on the proposal. The only exception is if the proposal falls within a previously-established "Categorical Exclusion" -- a category of actions that generally are not likely to have significant impacts -- in which case neither an EA nor an EIS needs to be prepared -- so long as the proposed action does not have any unusual characteristics that risk significant impacts.

EISes and EAs are documents written to aid in decision making. They explore feasible alternatives to a proposed action, and the likely environmental consequences of those actions. NEPA sought to put environmental concerns on par with economic motivations and technological feasibility when making a decision that could effect the environment. Hydrological/geological, biological/ecological and social are among the consequences considered.

NEPA requires that an EIS must include: the environmental impacts of the proposed action; unavoidable adverse environmental impacts; alternatives including no action; the relationship between short term uses of the environment and maintenance of long-term ecological productivity; irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources; and secondary/cumulative effects of implementing the proposed action. It was decided in a 1983 United States Supreme Court case (Metropolitan Edison Co. v. People Against Nuclear Energy) that "psychological effects" are not included along with general environmental effects.

An EA must generally include the same contents, but may be briefer. An EA is allowed only if the agency has issued a "Finding of No Significant Impact" (FONSI).

NEPA established the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to write regulations for EISs and advise the executive branch on environmental issues. Those regulations are binding on all agencies with regards to NEPA documentation, and can be found at 40 C.F.R.

As of February 2006, a Congressional panel is studying potential changes to NEPA for the first time since its enactment.

External links

[CEQ's NEPA resource page.]

U.S. Department of Energy [Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance], National Environmental Policy Act Program.

U.S. Federal Highway Administration [NEPA online "community of practice"]

[42 USC 4321](2000) National Environmental Policy Act (full text of the law)

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