yer daily dose of ok, wot is Bush rippin to shreds now

[Guest guest]

White House takes aim at NEPA

 

Friday, November 08, 2002

By John Krist

 

 

The Bush Administration has sought to use the general threat of wildfires as a

reason to exempt " fuel-reduction " activities in the national forests from

provisions of NEPA.

 

In his first official act of 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the National

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law.

It was a symbolically appropriate way to begin the decade: The 1970s marked a

watershed in the federal government's approach to the environment, and NEPA did

more than any other single piece of legislation enacted during those years to

fundamentally reshape the relationship between Americans and their air, water,

and land.

 

NEPA stands apart from many environmental statutes in another way: It has

remained almost unaltered since enactment more than three decades ago. The Bush

administration has apparently decided that is long enough.

 

Citing national security concerns, the administration is pressing ahead quickly

during the waning months of 2002 on proposals to " modernize and improve " the

landmark law. NEPA's defenders argue that the act has served the nation well and

needs no revision — or at least not the kind they suspect the White House has

in mind.

 

Passed by Congress in 1969, NEPA requires the U.S. government to assess the

environmental effect of any significant project undertaken by a federal agency,

funded with federal money, or requiring a permit from a federal agency. It

requires public disclosure of the results of that assessment and a public

determination as to whether the benefits outweigh the consequences.

 

Those requirements seem merely prudent and unsurprising today, but 33 years ago

they were revolutionary. NEPA upended the historical relationship between

Americans and the environment, requiring for the first time that government

agencies " look before they leap, " rather than trying to ignore or reverse

environmental damage after the fact. One of its authors, Sen. Henry " Scoop "

Jackson, called NEPA " the most important and far-reaching conservation and

environmental measure ever enacted. "

 

Only months after NEPA became law, the California Legislature used the federal

statute as a model for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The

state law is broader in some ways than NEPA, for it applies even to private

actions on private property if they would have a significant environmental

effect and require discretionary approval from any government agency —

federal, state, regional, or local.

 

CEQA will remain in effect regardless of whether federal lawmakers and Bush

Administration appointees amend NEPA. Although that will blunt the effect of

possible NEPA modifications in California, the state still has millions of acres

of national forests, national parks, and federal offshore waters where NEPA

changes could have dramatic effects.

 

California was not alone in emulating NEPA. Half the states — and more than 80

countries — eventually adopted statutes requiring environmental assessments.

Attorney Nicholas Yost, who served as general counsel for the White House

Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) during the 1970s, has called NEPA " the

most widely copied American law in all history. "

 

As might be expected from laws specifically designed to slow the permitting

process and prevent some projects from going forward, NEPA and CEQA have become

lightning rods for criticism from a wide range of interest groups. Local

government officials, developers, farmers, miners, timber companies — just

about any person, business, or organization involved in the use of natural

resources — have complained about the reach of both laws.

 

Whereas CEQA has been amended numerous times, NEPA remains fundamentally

unchanged, and its implementing procedures have undergone only one substantial

revision. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter ordered the CEQ to draft regulations

reducing the quantity of paperwork and length of time involved in NEPA

compliance.

 

The CEQ, an obscure federal body within the Executive Office of the President,

was established by NEPA. The council is charged with promulgating NEPA

regulations applicable to other federal agencies, and with resolving disputes

among federal agencies regarding NEPA compliance. The council comprises three

members appointed by the president and subject to Senate confirmation.

 

The council and its staff spent months carrying out Carter's directive,

traveling the country to meet with stakeholders of every persuasion. The CEQ

asked the United States Chamber of Commerce to coordinate participation by the

business community and asked the Natural Resources Defense Council to do the

same for the environmental community. According to Yost, CEQ staff met with

labor representatives, state government officials, federal employees,

scientists, trade groups, and others.

 

The 18-month effort produced several notable revisions, including a time limit

on reviews, the use of public input to identify early in the process those

issues to be addressed through the environmental impact statement (EIS), and the

requirement for a " record of decision " through which a federal agency follows

completion of the EIS by producing a public document describing in detail the

action to be taken and its environmental consequences.

 

The current NEPA revision process is neither so inclusive nor so leisurely. On

April 10, Horst Greczmiel, CEQ's associate director for NEPA oversight, sent a

letter to CEQ Chairman James Connaughton requesting approval of a task force

assigned to modernize the NEPA process, citing " rapid advances in technology and

information security concerns following the events of Sept. 11, 2001. "

 

Connaughton — a former industry lobbyist whose ties to mining companies and

the Chemical Manufacturers Association were criticized by environmentalists

during his confirmation hearing — approved the task force, which was formed on

May 20, and named Greczmiel chairman. A notice appeared July 9 in the Federal

Register announcing a 45-day public comment period during which interested

parties were invited to suggest changes in NEPA. (The deadline was later

extended to Sept. 23.)

 

Environmental organizations have criticized the process as another in a series

of Bush administration attempts to undermine NEPA. The critics cite ongoing

federal efforts to exempt logging plans from analysis and public review under

the guise of fire prevention, to expedite review of some transportation

projects, and to exempt federal activities from NEPA if they occur in offshore

waters.

 

" This is an administration that prefers to operate in secret, " said Marty

Hayden, legislative director of Earthjustice.

 

Connaughton denies that the task force is looking for ways to weaken NEPA. " Our

goal is to integrate NEPA practices with newer concepts of management, such as

environmental management systems and advancing information technologies, " he

said in July.

 

Most of the specific issues on which the task force has invited suggestions for

improvement do, indeed, concern better use of technology in analysis and

communication and are unlikely to have much effect on day-to-day implementation

of the law.

 

Two areas of focus, however, alarm the Bush administration's critics: expanding

the use of " categorical exclusions " by which federal agencies can declare

certain types projects exempt from environmental analysis and reviewing the

" balancing of public involvement and information security. "

 

To environmentalists, the latter term is code for quashing public input. And the

rapid, low-profile nature of the entire process suggests the environmentalists

might have reason to worry. The CEQ task force expects to finish its work and

issue a report by the end of the year.