User:Saxifragerussell/National Environmental Policy Act

Council on Environmental Quality
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) was modeled on the Council of Economic Advisers, an executive branch group created by the Employment Act of 1946 to advise the President on economic matters. Shortly after the CEQ was created by NEPA, President Richard Nixon expanded its mandate in executive order 11514. He directed the CEQ to issue guidelines for the proper preparation of an EIS and to assemble and coordinate federal programs related to environmental quality. The Council was placed within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It is composed of three members appointed by the President and subsequently confirmed by the Senate.

The CEQ has played a key part in the development of the EIS process. Its initial guidelines issued in 1971 required each federal department and agency to adopt its own guidelines consistent those established by CEQ. These guidelines did not carry the status of formal agency regulations, but were often treated with similar deference in the court of law. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter by executive order 11991 authorized the CEQ to adopt regulations rather than simple guidelines on EIS preparation. However, the CEQ still had no authority to enforce these regulations.

The CEQ has prepared advisory documentation in the last several years explaining the general structure of NEPA and the nature of cumulative impacts, among other advisories. The CEQ also maintains a Citizen's Guide to NEPA website as part of its ongoing duties. CEQ regulations call for agencies and other federal actors to integrate NEPA requirements with other planning obligations as early as possible in the process. This is to ensure that all decisions are influenced by and reflective of environmental values. It also avoids potential delays and conflicts that could arise from imposing these requirements later in the rule-making process.Section 102(2)(C), which is NEPA's action-forcing provision, stipulates that with "every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment", all federal agencies shall include "a detailed statement by the responsible official ... on the environmental impact of the proposed action". This statement must specify all the details required for the EIS.

Consequences for Violating the National Environmental Policy Act
Agencies that violate NEPA may suffer harms to their reputations that can jeopardize future funding opportunities. Because the CEQ does not have enforcement authority for their guidelines, alleged violations must generally go through the judicial system. These lawsuits can further harm the agencies by demanding money and resources from the federal government, and delay projects for years. Several large projects have been shut down or cancelled as a result of such delays, like the planned Keystone XL Pipeline. The expansion was abandoned by TC Energy in 2021 after delays including the rejection of its review under NEPA, in the case Indigenous Environmental Network v. U.S. Department of State. The most common consequence imposed by courts for violations of NEPA is a mandated repeat of whichever environmental review or report was found to have been insufficient.

In the period from 2017 to 2021 lawsuits alleging violations of NEPA proliferated, mainly directed at reviews of departmental rules and permits issued by appointees of President Donald Trump. Some notable cases include Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment v. David Bernhardt and Wildearth Guardians v. Ryan Zinke, in which courts revoked oil and gas permits in several Western states; State of California v. U.S. Department of the Interior, which led to the reinstatement of a moratorium on DOI coal leases; and Citizens for a Health Community v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which temporarily halted the Master Development Plan in Colorado.