This month, ELR publishes the procedural compliance guidelines prepared by federal agencies to guide their implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). See Statutory and Administrative Materials, Table of Contents, at ELR 40000. These guidelines were prepared pursuant to Executive Order No. 11514, ELR 45003, and Guidelines issued by the Council on Environmental Quality on April 23, 1971, ELR 46049. In many instances, they replace or update procedural guidelines issued by these agencies pursuant to CEQ's Interim Guidelines of April 30, 1970, 1 ELR 46001, although some of the federal sub-agencies that have now issued formal procedural guidelines for the implementation of NEPA had not done so previously.

Not all agency NEPA procedural compliance guidelines are published in this issue of ELR. Some agency guidelines were not available for publication prior to ELR's press deadline. Moreover, there are still some agencies that have not yet adopted procedural guidelines, although the deadline for their submission to CEQ was September 15, 1971. See Comment, 1 ELR 10167.