The national environmental policy act : judicial misconstruction, legislative indifference & executive neglect

206 Pages·2001·1.297 MB·English

by  Lindstrom, Matthew J., Smith, Zachary Alden

The National Environmental Policy Act
 
Environmental History Series
Dan Flores, General Editor

The National
Environmental
Policy Act
ff
Judicial Misconstruction, Legislative Indi erence,
& Executive Neglect
MATTHEW J. LINDSTROM & ZACHARY A. SMITH
Foreword by Lynton K. Caldwell
    •  
Copyright © 
by Matthew J. Lindstrom and Zachary A. Smith
Manufactured in the United States of America
All rights reserved
First edition
The paper used in this book
meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, .-.
Binding materials have been chosen for durability.
Library fo Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lindstrom, Matthew J., –
The national environmental policy act : judicial misconstruction,
legislative indifference, and executive neglect / Matthew J. Lindstrom
and Zachary A. Smith ; foreword by Lynton K. Caldwell.—st ed.
p. cm.—(Environmental history series ; no. )
Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ---
. Environmental policy—United States—History—th century.
. United States. National Environmental Policy Act of .
I. Smith, Zachary A. (Zachary Alden), – II. Title. III. Series.
. 
.''—dc 
To my family
— . 
To Amy
— . 

       
Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv

1 The Values and Legislative Intent of the National
Environmental Policy Act 
2 NEPA’s Political and Social Origins 
3 NEPA’s Legislative History and Implications 
4 NEPA Policy Goals: Ecology and Administration 
5 NEPA’s Implements of Application: Linking Values
and Action with the CEQ and EIS Process 
6 The Courts and Environmental Policy: NEPA’s Judicial
Downsizing 
7 NEPA’s Legacy, NEPA’s Future 
Appendix A. The National Environmental Policy Act of  
Appendix B. A Partial List of NEPA Electronic Resources 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 

       
It has now been over thirty years since President Richard Nixon signed
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law on January , ,
and there has long been need for a comprehensive and detailed account
of this statute, its origin, influence, and implementation. In , I com-
plained—as authors Lindstrom and Smith have noted—that “there never
has been a thorough and objective account about the evolution of this
extraordinary act.” With this book, there now is.
Some lapse of time was necessary before the history of this act could
be written. NEPA was enacted with bipartisan support at a critical point
in the nation’s history. It is doubtful whether NEPA could have been en-
acted before or after the several years during which it was drafted. Com-
parable legislation between  and  failed to obtain Congressional
attention. However, in the years preceding , a series of widely publi-
cized environmental disasters aroused popular concern and a demand that
the federal government “do something” to prevent future occurrences of
similar events. What was done is the substance of this book.
During the years from  to , popular concern in the United
States and Western Europe over the state of the land, air, water, and wild-
life—for which the inclusive term “the environment” is used—became
conventional in political discourse. Before this period, environmental con-
cerns were customarily perceived as natural resources issues.
After , as the environment started being differentiated from natu-
ral resources, it was widely perceived as relating almost exclusively to pol-
lution of air and water. When NEPA was signed into law, the New York
Times and the Washington Post, usually knowledgeable about public affairs,
announced that Nixon’s anti-pollution law was enacted. And subse-
quently, in these newspapers the appointees to the Council of Environ-
mental Quality were described as “Nixon’s pollution fighters.”
In retrospect, it appears that many members of Congress had the same