NEPA: turn the writing of the EIS into an "open-book" process.
NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) was designed with an unusual attention to public participation (unusual for 1970 that is!). Web 2.0 ...more »
NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) was designed with an unusual attention to public participation (unusual for 1970 that is!). Web 2.0 provides more ways to distribute information and to involve affected communities in the NEPA process. This gives us an opportunity to increase public participation in the NEPA process and improve the outcomes.
NEPA requires public review at 3 specific points in the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Because of the length of time required for many EISs, these public review points (scoping, draft EIS and final EIS) can be separated by many months, and, in cases where the project is controversial, lots of pressure can build up in the intervening months that can make the public meetings confrontational and unproductive.
Instead of restricting public input to these three events, what if the EIS was compiled as an open book? How would it work if, for example, the drafting process started with a published frame-work, published draft chapters as and when they were written, received and displayed comments as the drafting progressed and reflected the comments in the text, inserted research results as they become available, etc. etc? I've seen some of this already (e.g. research results published as soon as they are available, an additional public meeting inserted between the DEIS and the FEIS, public comments accepted after the close of the comment periods, etc.) and this seemed to add to the sense of involvement and certainly reduced the tension and drama of the public meetings. So why not write it in the open?
I'm sure that this will present some substantial challenges. I've never had to write an EIS, and would like to hear from you if you have. What would the challenges be?
What do others think?
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