national environmental policy act
What are the benefits of NEPA?
NEPA’s benefits are not necessarily easy to measure, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important
This is the seventh in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The sixth post is here. Which of the various reasons that we might …
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CONTINUE READINGNEPA as participatory democracy
NEPA might provide an opportunity for community-level engagement that advances public participation
This is the sixth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The last major category of potential benefits from NEPA that I want to …
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CONTINUE READINGNEPA as a veto point
Environmental review can empower a wider range of actors to block or hinder government projects
This is the fifth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. Judicial review to enforce NEPA ensures that agencies actually take environmental review requirements seriously, as opposed to producing …
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CONTINUE READINGCan NEPA change agency decisionmaking?
Environmental review can change agency incentives or culture
This is the fourth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. Another pathway by which environmental review might change outcomes, even with no legally binding substantive components, is through changing internal agency decisionmaking. The …
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CONTINUE READINGNEPA as a political tool
How NEPA can change environmental outcomes through political and public pressure
This is the third in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. A frequent critique of NEPA is that it is paperwork without purpose, and thus a waste of resources. How can a statute that has no substantive requirements, and …
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CONTINUE READINGNEPA as an environmental back-stop
NEPA can provide analytic coverage of environmental harms that are not covered under other statutes
This is the second in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. Why might we have an environmental review statute such as NEPA when we already have a range of other environmental protection statutes such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy do we have NEPA?
Examining the reasons why we might have environmental review can inform reform efforts
Reform, or even elimination, of environmental review for federal agency actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a hot topic in the policy world right now – particularly with the Trump Administration making a range of significant changes to try and reduce the scope of NEPA. But if we want to have a …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 10 Most Important Environmental Law Decisions of 2022
Climate Change, Water Rights, Environmental Justice & Federalism Issues Highlighted the Ninth Circuit’s Prodigious Environmental Docket This Year
I’ve shared in previous posts my view that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is–after the U.S. Supreme Court–the most influential court in the nation when it comes to environmental and natural resources law. That’s true for two related reasons: first, the sprawling Ninth Circuit encompasses nine different states (including California) and …
CONTINUE READINGCommemorating the National Environmental Policy Act’s 50th Anniversary
Celebrating NEPA: America’s Most Transformative, Overarching & Catalytic Environmental Law
On a snowy New Year’s Day in 1970–50 years ago today–then-President Richard Nixon signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA’s passage marked the beginning of America’s modern environmental law era. It was followed by Congressional passage of a series of other federal environmental laws over the next decade–major statutes that to this day …
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CONTINUE READINGCommemorating a Major Environmental Disaster–One With a Transformative Legacy
1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill Sparked the Beginning of America’s Modern Environmental Era
This week marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most serious and consequential environmental disasters in American history–the Santa Barbara offshore oil spill of 1969. On January 28, 1969, an offshore oil rig (Platform A) owned and operated by the Union Oil Company and operating in federally-controlled waters in the Santa Barbara Channel off …
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