President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act on New Year’s Day in 1970. The law responded to demands for broad environmental analyses for major federal projects. Environmental concerns, such as a burning Cuyahoga River, fueled its overwhelming passage by Congress. NEPA, as initially drafted, made sense. Since then, however, NEPA has undergone a metamorphosis at the hands of courts and bureaucrats to the point where the original drafters would no longer recognize or support how the law is used today.

The original concept, requiring federal agencies to identify significant environmental effects for major projects and consider public comments, was a step in the right direction. It helped improve projects and obviate disasters. Arguably, the trans-Alaska pipeline was successfully completed, with thoughtful wildlife protections, sensible efforts to mitigate environmental concerns, and superior engineering, all because NEPA was applied appropriately. 

Congress wasn’t seeking to enable every dubiously related, specious, or conceivable effect to be litigated by interest groups (or, for that matter, to put taxpayers on the hook for their legal expeditions).........

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