Judicial Review and Environmental Analysis Under NEPA: "Timing Is Everything"

January 2003
Citation:
33
ELR 10050
Issue
1
Author
Suzanne O. Snowden

The timing of environmental analysis and judicial review presents critical issues of interpretation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Courts must be able to review an agency's compliance with NEPA before the agency makes major decisions, and before it invests significant resources that can compromise environmental review. Agencies must not be allowed to delay environmental review just because necessary data and research are difficult to obtain, or environmental impacts are uncertain. This Article discusses how the courts have handled these timing problems.

The author is an Associate at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, Chicago, Illinois. She received her B.A. (1999), Vanderbilt University: J.D. (2002), Washington University School of Law. The author is grateful to Prof. Daniel Mandelker for his enthusiastic dedication to helping students understand environmental law. She would also like to thank Dinah Bear, General Counsel, Council on Environmental Quality.

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