Costs of Environmental Impact Statements and the Benefits They Yield in Improvements to Projects and Opportunities for Public Involvement

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the costs of environmental impact statements (EISs) and the benefits they yield in improvements to projects and opportunities for public involvement. The concept of EIS was introduced into the decision-making processes of the United States Government by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. EISs have been both lauded and defamed. Supporters of NEPA and EISs claim numerous benefits from EISs and the other aspects of the NEPA process. The benefits claimed include: (1) reduction of potential adverse environmental impacts of projects both after proposal and during project formulation; (2) institutionalization of environmental Values in government and corporate planning and decision-making; and (3) increased public disclosure and public involvement in decision-making. NEPA's detractors, on the other hand, argue that these benefits are either illusory or not the result of NEPA. They claim that any reduction in potential adverse impacts is a result of sound planning and project formulation, which are improvements in the decision-making process that have been evolving long before NEPA and would have continued without it.