Climate Change and the Federal Environmental Review Process

Abstract

In recent years, some state and local governments have moved towards incorporating climate change and greenhouse gas emissions into their environmental review processes. At the federal level, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the body that oversees the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), produced draft guidance in 2010 that laid out a framework for federal agencies to include climate change in the NEPA environmental review procedures. This paper examines four EISs that included climate change information prior to the release of CEQ's draft guidance. By examining the methods employed by the EISs and comparing them to the proposed guidance, it will illustrate the successes and shortcomings of the draft guidance, and it will give a glimpse into the potential style of future EISs.