Towards a new model of environmental review: preparing the US National Environmental Policy Act for new management paradigms

Abstract

New models of environmental decision making provide many of the elements of the US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, but include more direct means of implementing the findings of environmental analyses and allowing the public to influence agency actions. These models integrate information sources such as resource inventories with methodologies such as adaptive ecosystem management and comparative risk assessment. The end results are action plans that involve the traditional agencies and interest groups, and other partners in and out of government. By using these processes to provide ‘functional equivalency’ towards meeting their obligations under the Environmental Policy Acts, agencies can address many of the situations where they do not have direct authority over all aspects of a proposal. These situations can avoid frustration over the apparent shortcomings of the NEPA process.