NEPA Being Reworked

Casper, Wy –
The Bush Administration is revisiting the various aspects of NEPA the National Environmental Policy Act hoping to improve and modernize it. NEPA governs how public land rules are made and is why those bulky environmental impact statements come with any federal project. Wyomingite Tom Sansonetti is quite familiar with NEPA. He runs the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the US Department of Justice. Because of frequent lawsuits, Sansonetti says agencies often try to identify every possible impact of a project, consuming already limited resources.
Sansonetti thinks NEPA could be improved by limiting the length of EIS's and mandating that cases be heard by courts that are located where the impact occurs.