| Abstract: | This article is an elaboration of remarks made at the American Society of Planning Officials annual conference workshop on the National Environmental Policy Act, April 9, 1973. It is also part of a more extensive analysis of impact statements and the National Environmental Policy Act being undertaken by the author during 1973–74, as a joint project of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and the Fund for Environmental Studies, in Bonn, Germany. It is not intended to be an exhaustive analysis of the Act, its historical background or potential administrative problems posed either by the Act itself, or by CEQ guidelines or court decisions implementing the Act. Most of these issues have been explored at some length by others. If anything, this article is an early, perhaps too early, favorable appraisal of the Act, along with some cautions and the author's biases as to what practical and political reality is likely to produce vis-a-vis NEPA in the near future. |
