ABSTRACT
As detailed in this book, the US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted to ensure that federal decision makers devote appropriate consideration to environmental factors during the decision-making process. One of NEPA’s most important provisions is the requirement to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for all major federal actions that may signiƒcantly affect the quality of the human environment. As brie‰y described in the Introduction to this book, an EIS evaluates potentially signiƒcant effects of a proposed action, including alternatives and mitigation measures for avoiding those impacts. As we will see, this requirement is intended to force federal agencies to objectively evaluate and disclose the implications of their proposals to the decision maker and public.
