ABSTRACT
Given such a disproportionate number of Environmental Assessments (EA) to Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), agencies are clearly going to great lengths to avoid preparing EISs. The increased reliance on EAs can also be partly attributed to the fact that agencies are learning to integrate the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) objectives (e.g., proposing lower impact alternatives, integrating mitigation measures into project designs) into early planning, thus reducing potential impacts before actions mature to the permitting stage.
