In a major NEPA decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has planted its feet firmly on a deck which, if not actually burning, indisputably smells of smoke. In companion highway cases decided December 11, the court held—despite decisions to the contrary in five circuits—that federal agencies must prepare their own environmental impact statements and cannot delegate the task to state officials or private parties.¹ The ruling reaffirmed the Second Circuit's 1972 decision in Greene County Planning Board v. FPC,² and conflicts with holdings of the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits that significant and active participation by the federal agency is sufficient to satisfy NEPA. ³ The clear split of authority paves the way for a resolution of the issue in Supreme Court, which has so far avoided the question, denying certiorari in Greene County and in two of the contrary cases. The court of appeals also upheld a lower court's ruling that the impact statement on a 20-mile segment of what will eventually be a 280-mile superhighway must consider the environmental effects of the entire highway.

Conservation Society of Southern Vermont v. Secretary of Transportation is one of a number of suits engendered by the construction of U.S. Route 7 in New England.⁴ Vermonters in particular have felt the effect of their state's increased accessibility to eastern population centers, and many have opposed the new highways that bring the tourists and second-home buyers to Vermont in ever greater numbers.