The Environmental Law Institute has announced publication of A National Policy for the Environment: NEPA and Its Aftermath,¹ by Staff Political Scientist Richard A. Liroff. The book analyzes both enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the behavior of each of the key actors in its implementation.

The author concludes that the impact of NEPA was probably greater than that expected by many congressmen, and that the pattern of conflict over its implementation probably assumed a form far different from that which they anticipated. The absence of clear criteria within the law by which to evaluate the legal adequacy of administrative decisions, the limited policy-coordinating power of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and the opportunity NEPA provided for judicial review of agency decisions all encouraged definition and enforcement of the law's requirements through judicial rather than administrative processes. Environmental groups acted as surrogates for CEQ through their litigation, playing a considerable oversight role that was beyond the Council's capabilities. Agency actions having significant impacts on the environment that were taken in NEPA's wake were shaped by CEQ's interpretation of NEPA, by the agencies' own procedural guidelines for compliance with the Act, by the litigation initiated by environmental activists, and by the response of Congress to judicial decisions resulting from the environmentalists' lawsuits.