What is NEPA and EIS?
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and reasonable alternatives to those actions. To meet this requirement, federal agencies prepare a detailed statement known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). EPA focuses on three main areas regarding NEPA compliance: • coordinating EPA’s review of all Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) prepared by other federal agencies; • maintaining a national EIS filing system and publishing weekly notices of EISs available for review and summaries of EPA’s comments; and • assuring that EPA’s own actions comply with NEPA and other environmental requirements.
