[GreenYes] Fwd: [USCC]White House Takes Aim at NEPA

[Gary Liss <gary@garyliss.com>]

> To: compost@compostingcouncil.org
> From: Jim McNelly <jim@composter.com>
> Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 13:04:02 -0600
>
> White House takes aim at NEPA
> By John Krist
> Friday, November 08, 2002
>
> http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/11/11082002/s_48866.asp
>
> 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.
>
>
> Environmental News Network
>
> http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/11/11082002/s_48866.asp

Gary Liss

916-652-7850

Fax: 916-652-0485