ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that a process for scoping aesthetic impacts. Aesthetic impacts of large energy facilities are closely related to the appropriateness of location and may not be easily amenable to mitigation through design modifications. Scoping in the environmental impact statement (EIS) process commands sensitivity to a wide range of potential environmental impacts. The adoption in 1979 of the new Council on Environmental Quality regulations for scoping in the EIS process has brought much consternation among managers as to how they might best estimate the most important impacts accompanying proposed actions or developments. The timely development of a regional or national electrical generation system powered partially by nuclear fission depends, among other things, on selecting sites for new reactor facilities that meet stringent safety and environmental standards. General power plant siting methodologies are guided and constrained by the necessity to give appropriate consideration to engineering, economic, and environmental factors.
