Article:
Thomas O. McGarity, The Courts, the Agencies, and NEPA Threshold Issues, 55 TEXAS L. REV. 801 (1977).
 

Abstract:
Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to ensure that federal agencies act only after thorough consideration of environmental effects and alternatives. Section 102(2)(C) requires that an agency prepare an environmental impact statement for all “major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment,” but despite a profusion of litigation, the scope of this section remains largely undefined.

Professor McGarity surveys the broad categories of agency decision-making and argues that courts and agencies alike should construe section 102(2)(C) in light of the informational purpose of NEPA, which is to disclose relevant environmental information to the agencies, Congress, and the public. He contends that the Act independently empowers an agency to employ environmental considerations in reaching decisions and that the Supreme Court decisions which read section 102(2)(C) narrowly and mechanically frustrate the congressional purpose.