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RESEARCH ARTICLE: Essential Elements of Effective Implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Agency Decision Making and the NEPA Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Ronald E. Lamb
Ronald E. Lamb*
Affiliation:
Mount Airy, Maryland.
*
Address correspondence to: Ronald E. Lamb, 2503 Vance Drive, Mount Airy, MD; (phone) 202-255-4547; (e-mail) [email protected].
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Abstract

This article presents the findings of an online survey and interviews with National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) professionals on their opinion on the essential and most important components of agency NEPA programs. A list of NEPA program components was developed based on a review of books, articles, and papers on ways to improve the NEPA process. Results of the online survey indicate that all of the listed elements are considered important for an agency NEPA program to be successful. No program element was ranked lower than 3 (“somewhat important”). The highest-ranked element (1, “critically important”) was senior management support for the NEPA process. Interviews with senior NEPA specialists confirmed that senior management support for the NEPA process was critical, and that other critical components flowed from that support. Senior managers were interpreted as being the agency’s senior NEPA manager or the senior manager at each facility, installation, or command. Education was most frequently identified as how agency NEPA staff could develop and maintain consistent senior management support for the NEPA process. The interview sample size was small, and further research could be conducted with other agency representatives to identify additional successful methods to develop consistent senior management support for the NEPA process.

Environmental Practice 16: 1–9 (2014)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 272 - 280
Copyright
© National Association of Environmental Professionals 2014 

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References

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Further Reading

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