A comment in last month's ELR¹ described three suits filed by the National Wildlife Federation seeking to reform Federal Highway Administration procedures. That comment suggested that FHwA might want to settle these suits, which challenged FHwA's practice of exempting from NEPA requirements federal-aid highway construction projects that received design approval before February 1, 1971. As it turns out, in the meantime, a consent judgment has been approved and appears in the Litigation section of this month's ELR.²

Under the terms of the settlement, FHwA will not, after January 1, 1974, authorize advertisements for bid or right-of-way acquisition (except in exceptional hardship circumstances) for projects that are major federal actions significantly affecting the environment until a sufficient environmental impact statement has been filed. In the interim period before January 1, the FHwA division engineers will be responsible for evaluating whether environmental impact statements should be prepared for specific highway sections. Each state highway administration will be required to publish a list of proposed highway sections, the criteria for NEPA reassessment, and an invitation for comments. The FHwA will also publish a list of projects and its case-by-case determination of whether an environmental impact statement is required.