This page was last updated on April 21, 2005
CEQ Regional
NEPA Roundtables
Background:
In 2002, The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) established a National
Environmental Policy Act Task Force to review current NEPA practices and
provide recommendations to better integrate NEPA into federal agency decision
making and to make the NEPA process more effective, efficient and timely.
The Task Force reviewed the current NEPA implementing practices and procedures
in several areas: technology and information management and security;
federal and intergovernmental collaboration; programmatic analyses and
subsequent tiered documents; adaptive management and monitoring; procedures
and documentation for promulgating categorical exclusions; and the structure
and documentation of environmental assessments.
The Task Force: The Task Force membership
through January 2003 was composed of career civil servants from the
Environmental Protection Agency (Anne Norton Miller and Pat Haman);
the Forest Service (Rhey Solomon); Department of Energy (Lee Jessee);
Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (Matt
McMillen); Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau
of Land Management (Michele McRae and Jordon Pope); Army Corps of Engineers
(Mark Colosimo); and the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (Ramona Schreiber). The Environmental Protection
Agency (Mary Gary) provided administrative support. Horst Greczmiel,
CEQ Associate Director for NEPA Oversight, directed the work of the
Task Force.
The NEPA Task Force consulted with other federal and state agencies,
organizations, and the public, and received over 600 substantive public
comments as a result of public consultation. The Task Force drew upon
the work of CEQ's 25th anniversary report, The National Environmental
Policy Act: A Study of its Effectiveness After Twenty-five Years,
public comments, current literature and NEPA processes, as well as other
sources provided by the public. The Task Force completed its report,
Modernizing NEPA Implementation, with recommendations to CEQ
that propose potential new guidance and changes to CEQ regulations and
agency procedures implementing NEPA.
CEQ Roundtables: The CEQ hosted several regional
roundtables to raise awareness of the recommendations and to hear from
national experts and the public regarding which of the recommendations
should be implemented and their priority.
In addition to the reports from each of the roundtables that are provided
below, a final report synthesizing the input, The
Public and Experts' Review of The National Environmental Policy Act
Task Force Modernizing NEPA Implementation To The Chairman of
the Council of the Council on Environmental Quality, was prepared
and considered.
Who:
- Each of these roundtable meetings was attended by Horst Greczmiel,
CEQ, and facilitated by Ray Clark, former Associate Director at the
CEQ, and currently President of The Clark Group.
- The Roundtables were open to the public.
Where and When:
- January 8-9, 2004, co-hosted by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition
and the National Ski Area Association, at the Copper Mountain Conference
Center, Copper Mountain, Colorado.
- December 11-12, co-hosted by The Southern Environmental Law Center
and The Office of Continuing and Executive Education at Duke University's
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at the historic
Cadre Building, 149 Monroe Ave. in Memphis, Tennessee.
- November 13-14, co-hosted by the Surface Transportation Policy
Project and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials at the Southeast Regional Office of the Pennsylvania Department
of Envirnmental Protection, Lee Park (Suite 6010), 555 North Lane,
Conshohocken, PA, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- October 30-31 co-hosted by the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
and the Squaxin Island Tribe at the Squaxin Island Library, Museum,
and Research Center near Olympia, WA.
Format:
One and one-half days of roundtable discussion reviewed and discussed
the work of the Task Force and the recommendations. Roundtable participants
included experts in diverse parts of the NEPA process, including decisionmakers,
practitioners, and affected communities and groups. Following the roundtable
discussion, there was an "open mike" session for public views.
Goals:
To provide CEQ with individual expert and public views on:
- the recommendations;
- whether and how they should be implemented; and
- in what priority they should receive attention.
Implementation
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