A Prescriptive Analysis of the U.S. Navy's Program to Implement the National Environmental Policy Act

March 1975
Citation:
5
ELR 50049
Issue
3
Author
Lance D. Wood

Editors' Summary: This Article examines the policies and systems with which the U.S. Navy implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The author analyzes the many problems regarding NEPA compliance that the Navy has encountered, and proposes numerous reforms in the Navy's NEPA implementation system. This topic is especially timely because the Navy's NEPA program is currently facing a major court challenge in Concerned About Trident v. Schlesinger, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In addition, the Navy's extensive NEPA experience carries lessons for other federal agencies that face many of the same questions and dilemmas in seeking to comply with the statute.

B.A., June 1970, University of Richmond; J.D. Cum Laude, May 1973, University of Michigan. Lieutenant Wood, an attorney for the Investigations Division of the Office of the Judge Advocate Genneral of the Navy in Washington, D.C., is a candidate for a Master of Law Degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Law at The George Washington University Law School. This Article was prepared for submission to Prof. Arnold Reitze of the G.W.U. Law School in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the LL.M. The views expressed herein are those of the author individually. The author does not purport to promulgate or voice the views of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, the Department of the Navy, or any other agency or department of the United States.

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