9629

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9629
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Selected NEPA Documents.
• USFW Year: 1993.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

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the public; to reduce paperwork and the accumulation of extraneous background data; and to
emphasize real environmental issues and alternatives. Environmental impact statements shall
be concise, clear, and to the point, and shall be supported by evidence that agencies have
made the necessary environmental analyses.
(c) Integrate the requirements of NEPA with other planning and environmental review
procedures required by law or by agency practice so that all such procedures run
concurrently rather than consecutively.
(d) Encourage and facilitate public involvement in decisions which affect the quality of
the human environment.
(e) Use the NEPA process to identify and assess the reasonable alternatives to proposed
actions that will avoid or minimise adverse effects of these actions upon the quality of the
human environment.
(f) Use all practicable means, consistent with the requirements of the Act and other
essential considerations of national policy, to restore and enhance the quality of the human
environment and avoid or minimize any possible adverse effects of their actions upon the
quality of the human environment.
1500.3 Mandate.
Parts 1500-150$ of this Title provide regulations applicable to and binding on all Federal
agencies for implementing the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy
Act of 1969, as amended (Pub. L. 91-190, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) (NEPA or the Act)
except where compliance would be inconsistent with other statutory requirements. These
regulations are issued pursuant to NEPA, the Environmental Quality Improvement Act of
1970, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.) Section 309 of the Clean Air Act, as amended
(42 U.S.C. 7609) and Executive Order 11514, Protection and Enhancement of
Environmental Quality (March 5, 1970, as amended by Executive Order 11991, May 24,
1977). These regulations, unlike the predecessor guidelines, are not confined to Sec.
102(2)(C) (environmental impact statements). The regulations apply to the whole of section
102(2). The provisions of the Act and of these regulations must be read together as a whole
in order to comply with the spirit and letter of the law. It is the- Council's intention that
Judicial review of agency compliance with these regulations not occur before an agency has
filed the final environmental impact statement, or has made a final finding of no significant
impact (when such a finding will result in action affecting the environment), or takes action
that will result in irreparable injury. Furthermore, it is the Council's intention that any
trivial violation of these regulations not give rise to any independent cause of action.
1500.4 Reducing paperwork.
Agencies shall reduce excessive paperwork by:
(a) Reducing the length of environmental impact statements (SS 1502.2(c)), by means
such as setting appropriate page limits (SS 1501.7(b)(1) and 1502.7).
(b) Preparing analytic rather than encyclopedic environmental impact statements (SS
1502.2(a)).
(c) Discussing only briefly issues other than significant ones (SS 1502.2(b)).