Although upwards of 50,000 environmental assessments (EAs) are prepared annually--compared to some 500 environmental impact statements (EISs)--the focus of U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations is on defining requirements for preparing EISs. Written by Charles Eccleston and J. Peyton Doub, who have established themselves among the top environmental experts in the world, Preparing NEPA Environmental Assessments: A User's Guide to Best Professional Practices fills the need for an authoritative and comprehensive guide on how to prepare EAs. Bridging the regulatory gap, this book identifies relevant EIS regulatory requirements that can be logically interpreted to also apply to EAs. It compiles and synthesizes information scattered throughout NEPA's regulations, executive orders, and guidance documents, and incorporates case law to provide additional clarification. The authors also draw on the professional experiences and best professional practices (BPP) of NEPA practitioners. From the fundamentals to more advanced topics, the book presents a consistent methodology to help beginners, students, and professionals manage, analyze, and write legally sufficient EAs. It addresses dilemmas that have traditionally plagued preparation of EAs, provides BPPs, tools, and approaches for resolving problems, and introduces methods for streamlining the EA process. Building on Eccleston's previous guide to EAs, Effective Environmental Assessments: How to Manage and Prepare NEPA Assessments (2001), this book reflects the rapid changes in government policy over the past ten years. An indispensable source of practical information, it provides readers with step-by-step direction and best practices for preparing defensible EAs.

"The NEPA Reference Guide conveniently organizes and indexes the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations and guidance, along with relevant federal case law, all in one place. Practitioners will use this as a reference tool to quickly learn the statutory, regulatory, and case law authority for a large number of NEPA subjects."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) introduced the environmental impact statement, transformed decision making by federal agencies, and spurred the growth of an extensive body of environmental law. This book takes a close look at the litigation of NEPA cases, including jurisdiction and related issues, standard and scope of judicial review, and the specific concerns of litigators. Written by experienced practitioners and scholars, this comprehensive guide identifies key NEPA issues and offers solutions to the challenges faced in practice. This edition now features a chapter on climate change and its relationship to the NEPA process; updated chapters highlight recent cases and provide information on new policies, such as monitoring and mitigation, from the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the body created by the statute to provide guidance and oversight to other federal agencies on NEPA compliance. Throughout the book, experts summarize hundreds of key cases involving procedural or timing questions; the public participation process; alternatives analysis; limits of knowledge; and more. Appendices include the actf, CEQ regulations, and FAQs.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) affects all areas of environmental protection. ELI`s updated NEPA Deskbook, 3rd Edition, presents NEPA, along with supporting and related documents, and provides analysis of NEPA`s provisions and their requirements. The book begins with a thorough and up-to-date analysis of the Act written by NEPA expert Nicholas C. Yost. This "NEPA primer" provides an overview of the legislation, an analysis of the administrative process under NEPA, and a comprehensive examination of the courts` role in its enforcement. ELI`s NEPA Deskbook, 3rd Edition, also provides immediate access to the statute, relevant executive orders, regulations and guidance materials issued by the Council on Environmental Quality and other agencies, and important judicial decisions. NEPA Deskbook, 3rd Edition, is an essential resource for environmental attorneys, compliance managers, environmental consultants, or anyone who deals with environmental regulation and compliance.

Although upwards of 50,000 environmental assessments (EAs) are prepared annually--compared to some 500 environmental impact statements (EISs)--the focus of U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations is on defining requirements for preparing EISs. Written by Charles Eccleston and J. Peyton Doub, who have established themselves among the top environmental experts in the world, Preparing NEPA Environmental Assessments: A User's Guide to Best Professional Practices fills the need for an authoritative and comprehensive guide on how to prepare EAs. Bridging the regulatory gap, this book identifies relevant EIS regulatory requirements that can be logically interpreted to also apply to EAs. It compiles and synthesizes information scattered throughout NEPA's regulations, executive orders, and guidance documents, and incorporates case law to provide additional clarification. The authors also draw on the professional experiences and best professional practices (BPP) of NEPA practitioners. From the fundamentals to more advanced topics, the book presents a consistent methodology to help beginners, students, and professionals manage, analyze, and write legally sufficient EAs. It addresses dilemmas that have traditionally plagued preparation of EAs, provides BPPs, tools, and approaches for resolving problems, and introduces methods for streamlining the EA process. Building on Eccleston's previous guide to EAs, Effective Environmental Assessments: How to Manage and Prepare NEPA Assessments (2001), this book reflects the rapid changes in government policy over the past ten years. An indispensable source of practical information, it provides readers with step-by-step direction and best practices for preparing defensible EAs.

During the middle and late 1960s, public concern about the environment grew rapidly, as did Congressional interest in addressing environmental problems. Then, in 1970, a dramatic series of bipartisan actions were taken to expand the national government's efforts to control the volume and types of substances that pollute the air, water, and land. In that year, President Richard Nixon signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act, which established for the first time a national policy on the environment and created the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Additionally, President Nixon created, with Congressional support, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and he signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1970, which had overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. The strong bipartisan consensus on the need to protect environmental and human health began to erode, however, during the middle and late 1970s as other domestic and foreign policy problems rose to the top of the public and legislative agendas. Ronald Reagan's election to the Presidency in 1980 marked a dramatic shift in both environmental policymaking and administration. Over the thirty years that followed Reagan's election, environmental politics and administration became increasingly polarized. In this book, James K. Conant and Peter J. Balint examine the trajectory of environmental policy and administration in the United States by looking at the development of the CEQ and EPA. They look at changes in budgetary and staffing resources over time as well as the role of quality of leadership as key indicators of capacity and vitality. As well, they make correlations between the agencies' fortunes and various social, political, and economic variables. Conant and Balint cautiously predict that both agencies are likely to survive over the next twenty years, but that they will both experience continuing volatility as their life histories unfold.

Considered by many to be the top NEPA resource, and cited as an authority by a unanimous Supreme Court in the Methow Valley decision, NEPA Law and Litigation provides expert guidance on the latest legislative, regulatory, and caselaw developments interpreting NEPA. Use this treatise to discover or understand:
- When NEPA applies
- Major NEPA compliance requirements
- Complex NEPA litigation
- Citizens' suits
- The environmental review process
- When to prepare an environmental impact statement
- The effect of NEPA on federal agencies
- Environmental assessment in Europe and Canada
- When courts should dissolve injunctions after NEPA violations are cured
- California limitations of climate change requirements
- Council on Environmental Quality guidance for the application of NEPA
- Terrorist risk and global climate change as environmental impacts