Law Commons^™

Nepa At Twenty: Mimicry And Recruitment In Environmental Law, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

We are gathered here to consider not so much a twenty year-old law but a twenty year-old that has been extraordinarily far-reaching and influential. In its own special way, the National Environmental Polic Act and the environmental assessment that it represents have become the legal equivalent of cultural fads such as Hula Hoops, Rubik's Cubes, and Air Jordans.

A good portion of this conference, I suspect, will be devoted to documenting the many measures of NEPA's significance—the legal business it has generated, the institutional moves it has inspired, the precious places it is credited with saving.

My opening remarks will …

The Washington Environmental Policy Act, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

As the Washington State Environmental Policy Act of 1971 (SEPA)'approaches its fourteenth birthday, the time is ripe for an assessment of its recent history and foreseeable future. Several SEPA milestones have come and gone in the last several months, and a period of stability is in order. Reported Washington decisions citing SEPA now number close to one hundred; more than fifty of these are decisions of the Washington Supreme Court.

The books are closed on the two-year efforts of the Washington Commission on Environmental Policy (the SEPA Commission), whose work culminated in a report to the 1983 Legislature. There was …

A Hard Look At Vermont Yankee: Environmental Law Under Close Scrutiny, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

In Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the District of Columbia Circuit in two cases that closely scrutinized decisions of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and, in so doing, questioned settled habits of judicial review of administrative action affecting the environment. In this article Professor Rodgers analyzes four implications of Vermont Yankee—substantive judicial review under the National Environmental Policy Act, judicial imposition of procedures upon agencies beyond the statutory minima of the Administrative Procedure Act, the obligation of the agencies to consider alternatives in the environmental impact statement without regard to …