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Final Guidance on Improving Process for Preparing Efficient and Timely Environmental Reviews, etc. (US Council on Environmental Quality Regulation) (CEQ) (2018 Edition) The Law Library

Final Guidance on Improving Process for Preparing Efficient and Timely Environmental Reviews, etc. (US Council on Environmental Quality Regulation) (CEQ) (2018 Edition) The Law Library presents the complete text of the Final Guidance on Improving Process for Preparing Efficient and Timely Environmental Reviews, etc. (US Council on Environmental Quality Regulation) (CEQ) (2018 Edition). Updated as of May 29, 2018 The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is issuing its final guidance on Improving the Process for Preparing Efficient and Timely Environmental Reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and CEQ Regulations implementing NEPA provide numerous techniques for preparing efficient and timely environmental reviews. CEQ is issuing this guidance for Federal departments and agencies to emphasize and clarify that these techniques are available for all NEPA Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. These techniques are consistent with a thorough and meaningful environmental review and agencies using these techniques should keep in mind the following basic principles: NEPA encourages straightforward and concise reviews and documentation that are proportionate to potential impacts and effectively convey the relevant considerations in a timely manner to the public and decision makers, while rigorously addressing the issues presented; NEPA shall be integrated into project planning to ensure planning and decisions reflect environmental considerations, avoid delays later in the process, and anticipate and attempt to resolve issues, rather than be an after-the-fact process that justifies decisions already made; NEPA reviews should coordinate and take appropriate advantage of existing documents and studies, including through adoption and incorporation by reference; early and well-defined scoping can assist in focusing environmental reviews on appropriate issues that would be meaningful to a decision on the proposed action; agencies are encouraged to develop meaningful, predictable, and expeditious timelines for environmental reviews; and agencies should respond to comments in proportion to the scope and scale of the environmental issues raised. This guidance applies equally to the preparation of an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement consistent with legal precedent and agency NEPA experience and practice. This guidance does not change or substitute for any law, regulations, or any other legally binding requirement. It does provide CEQ's interpretation of existing regulations promulgated under NEPA. This book contains: - The complete text of the Final Guidance on Improving Process for Preparing Efficient and Timely Environmental Reviews, etc. (US Council on Environmental Quality Regulation) (CEQ) (2018 Edition) - A table of contents with the page number of each section