I. Introduction

Why does this middle-aged environmental law deserve such a warm 40th birthday party? The usual reasons are well known:

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has an elegant style. It is bold and sparse and trim. It comes close to eloquence now and then.

It is well-targeted--aimed squarely at the agencies of the United States. It is inviting, not punitive. It is tantalizing in the prospects.

It is generously designed. It puts the burden of environmental justification on the acting agency but then recruits widely in its consultation and other arrangements to draw others into the decision vortex.

It hits a number of appealing policy notes--good science, public participation, government reform, and protection of the environment.

NEPA received the greatest of institutional compliments--it was presaged, then it was widely copied. Adrian Fischer, my law dean at Georgetown University in the early 1970s, saw the immediate pertinence of this impact statement approach to his work on disarmament negotiations. It would clearly help, he mused, to know a bit about the Pentagon's new weapons plans in any discussions to rid the world of weapons.