National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

THE LAW: U.S. federal law that established national policies and objectives for the protection and maintenance of the environment

DATE: Enacted on January 1, 1970

The National Environmental Policy Act has raised public awareness of the concept of environmental impacts, highlighting the need for governments and citizens to be aware of the unintended consequences of federally supported actions that affect the human environment.

Sometimes referred to as the environmental Magna Carta of the United States, the law officially known as the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), although it was not enacted until the first day of 1970, was the first U.S. legislation to require a comprehensive and coordinated national environmental policy that embraced public review of environmental impacts associated with the actions of federal agencies. Oversight of NEPA compliance was facilitated through the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which was created through a provision of the act.

In response to widespread public interest in environmental quality during the late 1960’s, the U.S. Congress held separate House and Senate committee hearings to identify the best method for legislating a national policy on environmental protection. Among the problems discussed was the tendency of mission-oriented federal agencies involved in development to overlook environmentally preferable alternatives in their decision-making processes. Draft versions of House and Senate environmental bills were later integrated and approved by Congress as NEPA. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970, NEPA recognized the profound impact of human activity on the interrelations of all components of the natural environment, particularly the influences of growth, high-density urbanization, resource exploration, and new and expanding technological advances. Language used in the bill embraced many of the philosophies of the conservation movement of the early twentieth century and later environmentalism of the 1960s.

Although other US environmental statutes provide robust protection for the environment, they focus only on specific categories of resources. In contrast, NEPA serves as an umbrella statute that outlines a set of procedures and embraces the importance of public participation in federal decision making when the quality of the is at stake. NEPA does not demand explicit results such as limits on emissions or specific actions to protect endangered species, nor does it serve as a substitute for other federal planning activities or regulatory processes. Rather, the act requires that decisions be made on the basis of thoughtful analysis of the direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts of proposed actions.

NEPA prescribes the completion of a series of steps for all actions involving federal participation that may affect the environment, emphasizing in spirit and intent the importance of public participation in safeguarding the environment. The first step in federal project review is completion of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) with input from local governments, Native American tribal governments, the public, and other federal agencies. An EIA documents influences on the environment associated with a proposed federal action, including the types and levels of significant impacts. NEPA further requires that, following completion of the EIA, a second document be prepared for all actions going forward. A finding of no significant impact (FONSI) provides documentation in cases where it has been determined that the planned actions will have no significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Federal actions that may significantly alter the quality of the human environment, including possible degradation to threatened or or their habitats, must be evaluated in greater detail. An involves additional analysis of pertinent social, demographic, economic, and ecological information and consideration of alternative courses of action. NEPA requires that the EIS process be carried out using a framework involving public input through a variety of mechanisms, including individual or group responses to proposed alternatives.

Implementation and Criticisms

Initially, NEPA implementation was difficult within agencies struggling to establish guidelines. Within the act’s first two years, federal agencies had completed more than 3,600 EISs but were also involved in nearly 150 associated lawsuits. Although the number of EISs submitted each year fell thereafter, more than 26,000 were written from 1970 to 2000. These reports document actions ranging from the construction of highways to the development of facilities for holding toxic wastes. The majority of EISs have been produced by a few federal agencies, including the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Army Corps of Engineers. There is no formal tracking process for EIAs, but a much larger number of such assessments have been prepared for other federal projects and activities.

Critics argue that the EIS process is not cost-effective in terms of human resources or dollars spent and that NEPA guidelines are often inconsistently applied. As an overarching policy, NEPA cannot prevent agencies from implementing unwise actions or even from concluding that other values are more important than environmental considerations. Despite ambiguity in its language, however, the act has been credited with significantly modifying the actions of both government agencies and private industries by preventing hundreds of activities with potentially severe environmental effects.

NEPA has raised awareness of the concept of environmental impact, highlighting the need for governments and citizens to be aware of the unintended consequences of federally supported actions that affect the human environment. NEPA has also assisted in creating pathways for other federal statutes that consider environmental issues in decision making, such as the 1980 , also known as Superfund. Having withstood the regulatory reform commissions of several presidential administrations, NEPA stands out for its brevity and simplicity.

Bibliography

Buck, Susan J. “Environmentalism in the United States.” In Understanding Environmental Administration and Law. 3d ed. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2006.

Caldwell, Lynton K. Science and the National Environmental Policy Act: Redirecting Policy Through Procedural Reform. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1982.

Clark, Ray, and Larry Canter, eds. Environmental Policy and NEPA: Past, Present, and Future. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1997.

King, Thomas F. “The Umbrella: The National Environmental Policy Act.” In Cultural Resource Laws and Practice: An Introductory Guide. 2d ed. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2004.

"What Is the National Environmental Policy Act?" United States Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/nepa/what-national-environmental-policy-act#. Accessed 21 July 2024.