Question about Environmentalism and NEPA??
Answer:
The biggest change that NEPA brought about - the requirement that the federal government prepare Enivronmental Impact Statements (EISs) and Environmental Assessments (EAs) - was actually almost an unforseen consequence of NEPA.
NEPA is a remarkable law, a magnificently concise statement of good intentions (the Act is only a little over 4 pages long!) But for the most part, NEPA lacks real teeth. Litigtaion began shortly after the passage of NEPA to determine what the law actually required the gov't to *do* to implement all the idealistic statements. Litigation focused on Section 102(c), one of the few "action forcing" parts of the Act. As a result, we now have the requirement for EISs and EAs and the industry of bureauocrats and contractors that produce them.
Prior to 1970 when Congress passed NEPA, federal environmental legislation was generally weak and piece-meal. NEPA coincided with a move toward federal dominance in environmental regulation. The major environmental laws of the 1970s - the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, etc. - were startlingly comprehensive and put a lot of power in the hands of the federal government (although states' rights advocates demanded that the states maintain a role in enforcement and the spending of funds provided for construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants).
The big effect of NEPA - gov't agencies now have to prepare and publicize EISs and EAs describing what they intend to do - have been useful and beneficial. NEPA is a "full disclosure law", and that's a big improvement over how federal agencies operated before the mid '70s.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: