Defenders' Experts
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT OF 1969 (NEPA)
NEPA declares it a national policy to encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and the environment and promote efforts to better understand and prevent damage to ecological systems and natural resources important to the nation. Agencies are required to prepare a detailed environmental impact statement for any major federal action significantly affecting the environment. The Act also establishes the Council on Environmental Quality to review government policies and programs for conformity with NEPA.
Although NEPA requires agencies to take what is known as a "hard look" at the environmental consequences of their actions, it does not force them to take the most environmentally sound alternative.
PURPOSE
"The purposes of this Act are: To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality."
