Draft Climate Change

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has had enormous success and a deep impact on American society since it was passed in 1969. Back then, it was a new simple and brilliant way of looking at the role humans play in the environment. However, over the years, NEPA has been frequently afflicted by a number of complications that impair its productivity and efficiency. NEPA, in its simplicity, is a human-environment statute that sets goals and requirements, but allots how these requisites are to be executed to an agency’s judgement. Flexibility and a leeway are both a blessing and a curse, as it leaves room for poor judgement and a lack of obedience in regards to regulatory provision and prescribed methods. The effects of not following …show more content…
For example, GHG emissions from a proposed power plant would be used as a proxy to determine the impact of a project on climate change; in contrast, statistical data would be used to predict future rainfall and snowpack to assess future water levels in the river used for water …show more content…
(2) ‘Contemplation of a proposed action’s direct and indirect climate change impacts ought to comprise emissions from activities that have a reasonably close causal relationship to the federal action, including those that are the result of an agency’s action (upstream actions) and those that are the consequence of an agency’s action (downstream actions)’. (3) NEPA analyses are obliged to consider the cumulative impacts on climate change, however, the CEQ does not demand an environmental impact statement (EIS) as a requisite ‘based on cumulative impacts of GHG emissions alone’. (4) An agency must consider other sources of GHG emissions besides fossil fuel. Biogenetic sources must be included, specifically in regards to land management, such as prescribed burning and