05-29-2015 - Advanced NEPA - Houston, TX

You are encouraged to bring your own questions for discussion and resolution.  This is a seminar format with significant time reserved for discussion rather than lecture. Handout materials are substantial and based on statutes, regulations, and case law rather than on opinion or past practice. 

Intended Audience:

Since this is an advanced course, it will be assumed that attendees will know the vocabulary, the acronyms, and the basic NEPA process. Attendees should be at least vaguely familiar with the statute, the regulations, and the guidance memoranda. Attendees should have substantial experience in the preparation of NEPA documents, their approval, or litigation over their adequacy.  Project managers, senior environmental professionals, seasoned NEPA practitioners, writers and editors, legal counsel, and decision makers themselves will get the most out of this seminar.

Prerequisites:

Attendees should have substantial experience in the preparation of NEPA documents, their approval, or litigation over their adequacy.

Topics To Be Covered Include:

• What is an extraordinary circumstance that would take an action normally excluded out of consideration for categorical exclusion?
• Is a no-action alternative absolutely necessary in an environmental assessment?
• What is an environmental baseline?
• What is an appropriate alternative for a proposal involving unresolved conflicts over alternative uses of available resources? 
• What is an adverse environmental effect that cannot be avoided?
• When is an issue or matter relevant and when is it not?
• What is the threshold for supplementing an EA?
• Can a programmatic EIS on a long-term plan of actions be supplemented with dozens, scores, or even hundreds of EAs/FONSIs on the many actions that implement the plan of actions over time?  If the plan of actions has significant consequences, at what point does the accumulation of implementing actions become significant?  

Course Materials:

Attendees will receive a course manual containing workshop proceedings and reference material.

What to Bring to Class:  Pen or pencil, and paper if you do not want to take notes in your manual. Drinks and snacks will be provided each day. Lunch will be on your own.