The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a landmark environmental statute that has protected America's natural heritage on land and sea. For over 30 years, NEPA has provided an essential tool in helping federal managers do their jobs. When done right, it promotes sound and accepted decisions. Specifically, NEPA requires federal agencies to study and disclose the environmental effects of their actions and to include the public in their decision-making.

NEPA and its accompanying regulations have worked well to help ensure that public resources are managed, and public funds are spent, through a public process. But now the so-called Magna Carta of U.S. environmental laws is under attack by the Bush administration. Why is NEPA being targeted? Because this law -- fully implemented and enforced -- presents a legal obstacle to the administration's anti-environment, pro-industry agenda. How is NEPA at risk? Let us count the ways:

White House Task Force
President Bush has set up a NEPA Task Force headed by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The mission of the task force is to "help federal agencies update their practices and procedures and better integrate NEPA into federal agency decision making." 67 Fed. Reg. 45511 (July 9, 2002). While the administration talks about enhancing NEPA, all of its actions have sought to circumvent the process.

From logging on national forests to off-shore oil drilling to highway projects, the Bush administration has proposed to remove federal activities with serious environmental consequences from NEPA's requirements.

National Forests
NEPA is literally under fire as the Bush administration aggressively pushes to weaken the law. At the behest of the timber industry, and with the blessing of some members of Congress, the administration is exploiting this summer's record wildfire season by proposing legislation to waive NEPA environmental reviews and appeals. Rather than getting on with the non-controversial removal of small trees and brush that will best protect communities, the administration is proposing to waive NEPA for a broad category of commercial logging, even in remote, wild -- roadless -- areas of national forests. In addition to considering free-standing legislation based on the president's Healthy Forests initiative (See H.R. 5214, H.R. 5309, H.R. 5319), Congress is considering NEPA waivers for logging as part of the Senate Interior Appropriations bill (S. 2708).

On October 8, the House Resources Committee will consider legislation (H.R. 5319) sponsored by Rep. McInnis (R-CO) and Rep. Miller (D-CA) that would eliminate one of the critical pieces of NEPA-the requirement to consider alternatives to the proposed agency action. The bill would also dramatically limit the ability of the public to challenge logging decisions in court. The full House is expected to vote on the legislation before adjourning next week.

Transportation
In an effort to speed up the pace of transportation projects, highway proponents have blamed the environmental review process for delays and have suggested restricting opportunities for public participation and imposing unrealistic deadlines on participating federal agencies. In fact, where delay has occurred, recent data have shown that more often than not such delay resulted from lack of funding and project complexity -- not environmental review. (Federal Highway Administration, Reasons for EIS Project Delays, September 2000).

The Bush Administration is expected to include language limiting environmental review requirements and public participation opportunities for highway projects in legislation reauthorizing the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). This statute, which governs how transportation funds are spent, expires next year. On September 25, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) introduced legislation (H.R. 5455) that would severally limit time periods and subject matters covered in environmental impact statements and environmental assessments required by NEPA. Many opportunities exist to improve the efficiency of the review process for highway projects, however, without sacrificing a thorough analysis of environmental consequences and meaningful public involvement.

In addition, Congress has been working quietly to pass legislation that would sharply curtail the right of citizens and communities to fight construction projects at the nation's largest airports. In July, the House passed legislation (H.R. 3479) that circumvents critical NEPA requirements for airport construction at America's 31 busiest airports. Under the guise of "streamlining," this legislation would allow construction permitting to proceed before any consideration of more environmentally-sustainable alternatives to construction occurs. The Senate is considering similar legislation (S. 2039).

Oceans
On September 17, 2002, a federal judge rejected a legal argument advanced by the Bush administration that NEPA does not apply to the oceans beyond U.S. territorial waters -- three nautical miles from the nation's shorelines -- within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The EEZ is a vast area extending 200 nautical miles from shore, containing millions of square miles of rich ocean habitat where the U.S. exercises exclusive control over fisheries, endangered species, marine mammals, marine habitat and other natural resources. The judge's ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental groups (led by NRDC) against the U.S. navy over the use of a powerful sonar system that is harmful to marine life.

Despite this legal victory for the environment, talking points from a meeting at the CEQ in August reveal that the White House is considering stripping NEPA protection from the oceans. If this major policy change occurs, it would open up a Pandora's box of potentially harmful environmental consequences such as sonar testing, waste dumping, commercial fishing, oil and gas drilling, and other activities -- all without careful review of environmental impacts, assessment of alternatives, and opportunity for public scrutiny that NEPA currently provides. Indeed, if NEPA no longer applied to the EEZ -- which encompasses an area larger than the entire continental U.S. landmass -- then this policy would constitute the single greatest rollback of environmental protection ever.

Energy
A basic tenet of the Bush energy plan is to speed up energy exploration and production. 66 Fed. Reg. 28357 (May 22, 2001). In their haste, even though they say otherwise, administration officials appear ready sacrifice environmental review and public input. For example, the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for 51,000 new coalbed methane wells in Wyoming's Powder River Basin relies on data over ten years old. In its effort to get these new wells approved as fast as possible, BLM has refused to conduct new analysis of the impacts of CBM development, a technique not considered in the previous analysis at all.

Meanwhile, a section added by Sen. Campbell (R-CO) to the energy bill (H.R. 4) could waive NEPA requirements in order to accelerate energy development on tribal lands. In particular, the right of citizens to enforce compliance with environmental review and public participation requirements in court could be eliminated. This provision (Title IV) could limit the ability of both Native Americans and other members of the public interested in protecting the natural resources on tribal lands, as well as adjacent lands including national parks.

Industry lobbyists inserted another provision in the House version of the energy bill that lets oil and gas companies do their own analysis of the environmental consequences of proposed projects and then pays them for doing so. Companies seeking to profit from on-shore oil and gas drilling can pay for the cost of environmental analyses, ostensibly to speed up the regulatory process. H.R. 4 (Sec. 6234) would reimburse companies for these expenses, essentially paying industry to follow the law.

Grazing
Both the House and Senate versions of the Interior Appropriations bill contain a rider that would exempt federal land managers from NEPA's environmental review and public participation requirements for renewal of grazing permits. Livestock grazing can cause widespread environmental damage, including destruction of critical wildlife habitat, erosion and water pollution. Once renewed, the permits are good for 10 years. While the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service have enjoyed NEPA waivers for the past several years, this year's rider exempts the Forest Service for the first time.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 500,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Related NRDC Pages
The Bush Record on the Environment
The Bush Energy Plan & America's Public Lands
The White House Must Reject the Navy's Assault on the Oceans
Spread of Active Sonar Threatens Whales