Federal
agencies have little data on the costs and benefits of environmental reviews
required by the National Environmental Policy Act, even though thousands of
projects requiring the reviews are high-profile and expensive, according to a new report
by the Government
Accountability Office. NEPA
requires reviews for any project that will have an environmental impact, such
as roads, docks and drilling projects.
Some
reviews are routine and need only a "categorical exclusion" or
"environmental assessment;" others require costly and time-consuming
Environmental Impact Statements, which often take years to complete and cost
the government and private companies millions of tax dollars. "According
to [Department of Energy] data, the average payment to a contractor to prepare
an EIS from calendar year 2003 through calendar year 2012 was $6.6 million,
with the range being a low of $60,000 and a high of $85 million," the
report said.
These
expensive reviews are also used in lawsuits filed against a proposed project,
meaning agencies have an incentive to create a "litigation-proof"
EIS, GAO noted. There are
about 100 NEPA lawsuits each year, and the government prevails in most cases,
according to GAO......To Read More.....
My Take - In short they're guessing, or making it up according to their own personal ideological environmental vision. It's time to repeal the NEPA and start over.
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