Charles S. Clark
The 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, which introduced the country to the “environmental impact statement,” has been enforced by multiple agencies with little data on the costs of analyzing its effects, according to a roundup by the Government Accountability Office.
“Agencies do not routinely track the cost of completing NEPA analyses, and there is no governmentwide mechanism to do so,” GAO wrote in a report published Tuesday on the landmark law that guides the permitting process for roads, bridges and smaller development.
“According to agency officials, information on the benefits of completing NEPA analyses is largely qualitative,” auditors wrote, noting that assessing the benefits of federal environmental requirements “is difficult because the monetization of environmental benefits often requires making subjective decisions on key assumptions.”
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An example of the private-sector’s attitudes toward NEPA emerged last September at a Senate hearing discussing the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Energy Institute President and CEO Karen Harbert said, “Federal and state environmental statutes such as NEPA, state siting and permitting rules, and a 'build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything' -- BANANA -- mentality, routinely are used to block the construction and expansion of everything from transmission lines to power plants to pipelines.”
Read the full article at Government Executive.