United States national environmental policy act of 1969 : some aspects of its implementation.

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dc.contributor.authorCrook, Christianna Stachelrodten_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-13T18:16:30Z
dc.date.available2024-08-13T18:16:30Z
dc.date.copyright1974en_US
dc.date.issued1974
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Geography
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThis study evaluates some aspects of the implementation and impacts of the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The objectives are pursued with special reference to the following: (i) the status of U·.S. environmental legislation prior to the enactment of NEPA, (ii) statutory, and (iii) judicial interpretations of the re­quirements of the Act, (iv) federal agency response to these requirements and (v) the impact of more recently enacted legislation on the provisions of the Act. The Act requires the preparation of environmental impact state­ments for all major federal project proposals. These assessments are to accompany the proposals through all stages of the decisionmaking process. The Act passed Congress almost completely unnoticed by the major­ity of its members. Many took the language of the Act for legislative rhetoric. Most people have been surprised by the resultant considerable judicial support for citizen-initiated suits which seek the compliance of federal agencies with the requirements of the Act. The broad sweeping language of the Act is often vague and judicial interpretations have not been entirely consistent. In general, however, the courts have deter­mined that federal agencies must assess the impact of proposed "major federal actions ... significant [ly] affect[ing] the environment." A major complaint of environmental groups has been that, once agencies have fulfilled the requirement of Section 102 (the action-forcing provision) by preparing an impact statement, they have been permitted to proceed with their proposed activities at their own discretion. The courts have commonly maintained that NEPA contains no direct requirement that federal agencies should take heed of the impact statement findings and thus alter or abandon projects for which major adverse environmental impacts are anticipated. Many legal experts disagree with this inter­pretation of the Act. The question is not yet settled, but support is increasing for the view that the policy statement in Section 101, which defines a government responsibility to protect the environment, may legally require agencies to consider impact statement findings as part of their decisionmaking procedures. Although variations exist in agency response to the directives of NEPA, a three-phase pattern of incremental compliance has emerged, which applies to the reactions of the agencies between 1970 and 1974. In phase one, agencies characteristically ignored the statute. This phase was summarily terminated by a proliferation of citizen-initiated suits. During phase two, agencies began reluctantly to prepare impact statements but many of these were of poor quality. Phase three, which is currently evident in many agencies, is characterized by an improvement in the quality of prepared statements. In the latter stages of this phase, impact assessment is being incorporated into the decisionmaking process. The improvement in the spirit of compliance of federal agencies with the provisions of this Act may be attributed in large part to the vigilance of environmental groups, public-interest law groups, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ),and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The 92nd Congress of 1971-1972 was swamped with bills which were designed to amend NEPA, either to strengthen or to debilitate its effectiveness. By the end of the second session (1972), several major bills which directly concern environmental protection had been enacted but only two instigated any changes in NEPA procedures and neither of these directly amended the Act. NEPA has initiated a period of environmental legislation which is significantly more responsive to the problems of environmental degrada­tion than earlier legislation. However, while compliance with the man­date of Section 102 may result in less destructive dams and nuclear reac­tors, this is not an end in itself. The full potential of the Act will not be realized until the Act is effectively applied to broad agency and national programs.
dc.format.extent285 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/17561
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleUnited States national environmental policy act of 1969 : some aspects of its implementation.en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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