The EIS Book

Preface The US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) provides a systematic and comprehensive planning process for considering the consequences and alternatives of federal actions before a final decision is made to pursue a course of action (Figure 0.1). NEPA's most notable planning provision undoubtedly involves the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). An EIS must be prepared for all federal actions that may significantly affect environment quality. Unfortunately, one can easily find examples where an EIS has been prepared in excruciating detail, Figure 0.1 NEPA involves timely environmental issues. (Courtesy images.google. com.) K19000_C000d.indd 17 8/13/2013 3:45:12 AM xviii Preface sometimes ad nauseam, investigating the most trivial and remote issues in detail. Such EISs may examine every conceivable impact, significant or not, yet blatantly ignore the very purpose of preparing the EIS; the EIS is the federal government's planning and decision-making tool. Poor EIS practice leads to poorly planned projects, and ultimately poor environmental protection. Some poorly planned projects not only jeopardize environmental quality but pose severe risks to society as well. Perhaps no example better illustrates this problem than the case study described in Chapter 1 in which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has prepared deficient EISs to justify its mission of relicensing the nation's fleet of antiquated nuclear reactors. This book is not about preparing bigger EISs--but better ones--