ABSTRACT
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) unites a poetically worded national policy with a statutory plan of action to implement that policy. The implementation of these broad policy goals in NEPA takes place in accordance with key regulations of the Executive Office of the President and of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NEPA does, however, mandate a significant change in agency decisionmaking. It has given rise to a new body of case law in court decisions, new sets of agency regulations, new technical data, new roles for public officials, and new rights and obligations for private industry working with government officials and for private citizens who wish to participate in the decisionmaking process. The content routinely must include impacts on water pollution, wildlife, and land use, public health, wetlands protection, and flood control. The currency of NEPA is the Environmental Analysis, a preliminary form or report which analyzes whether the project impacts are “significant”.
