NEPA litigation 1988-1995: A detailed statistical analysis

Conference · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:500825

Reinke, D C ^[1]; Robitaille, P ^[2]

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1. Horne Engineering Services, Inc., Fairfax, VA (United States)
2. Army Environmental Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)

The intent of this study was to identify trends and lessons learned from litigated NEPA documents and to compare and contrast these trends among Federal agencies. More than 350 NEPA cases were collected, reviewed, and analyzed. Of the NEPA cases reviewed, more than 170 were appeals or Supreme Court cases, mostly from the late 1980s through 1995. For this time period, the sampled documents represent the majority of the appeals court cases and all the Supreme Court cases. Additionally, over 170 district court cases were also examined as a representative sample of district court decisions on NEPA. Cases on agency actions found to need NEPA documentation (but that had no documentation) and cases on NEPA documents that were found to be inadequate were pooled and examined to determine the factors that were responsible for these findings. The inadequate documents were specifically examined to determine if there were any general trends. The results are shown in detailed statistical terms. Generally, when a Federal agency has some type of NEPA documentation (e.g., CX, EA, or EIS) and at least covers the basic NEPA procedural requirements, the agency typically wins the litigation. NEPA documents that lose generally have serious errors of omission. An awareness and understanding of the errors of omission can help Federal agencies to ensure that they produce winner a greater percentage of the time.

• OSTI ID: 500825
• Report Number(s): CONF-9705100--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
COMPLIANCE
DECISION MAKING
LAWSUITS
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
US NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT