Why NEPA is worth saving.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is often held up as an example of government bureaucracy run amok. It’s said that it unreasonably delays important undertakings as well as adding to the cost of constructing critical infrastructure. There is some truth to these complaints. The NEPA process does take time, money, and highly trained experts to complete it successfully. Even then, it can be subject to legal challenge. We’ll get into some of these issues, and the solutions that Oak Canyon AI offers, in later posts. For this first post, though, we want to lay some groundwork on why NEPA matters to everyone in the United States and why it should not be gutted as some proponents of faster infrastructure would like.

A common mistake is that the ‘P’ in NEPA stands for ‘Protection’ rather than ‘Policy.’ This mistake is often associated with the belief that NEPA mandates that the environment be protected. It does not. While other laws protect wetlands, wildlife species, farms, houses, and other natural and human resources, NEPA does not require the protection of so much as a single bug.

Instead, NEPA requires that the Federal government follow specific procedures when doing something (an undertaking, in NEPA-speak). Boiled down to its essence, NEPA makes sure that the government (and the people who make decisions in the government) know both what they’re going to do and the effect of their decisions on a wide range of environmental resources, both human and natural.

Aside from the analysis, the other essence of NEPA is that, once the government has the information developed in the NEPA analysis, they have to tell people. They do this by publishing their study (a categorical exclusion, environmental assessment, or environmental impact statement) and often by holding public meetings or public hearings.

Again, NEPA doesn’t protect anything. Despite the NEPA process, the government regularly approves undertakings that take houses, knock down historic buildings, destroy wetlands, and degrade wildlife habitat. It’s entirely reasonable for different needs and considerations to be weighed and balanced and for those considerations to sometimes prioritize infrastructure over minimal effects to the environment.

NEPA sometimes takes time and money (sometimes lots of money) because the documents produced during the process are subject to legal challenge. For simple, uncontroversial projects, like adding bike lanes to an existing road, the process is quick and easy. In my professional career, a categorical exclusion for that kind of undertaking was often completed in a couple of months for a few thousand dollars. But, the more controversial a project, the more analysis is needed to be sure you understand the impacts and the more likely there is to be a legal challenge. This causes delays both during the preparation of the document, as the NEPA professionals try to ensure that their work is bulletproof, and if the document is actually challenged and must go through the court system.

But, the loss of NEPA means a country where the government doesn’t know what effect its projects will have until they’ve built them. It’s also a world where you don’t know about the highway going in next door until the bulldozers are out knocking down your neighbor’s house. We prefer to know what’s going on, and we think you probably do, too.