NEPA’s procedural disclosure mandate produced real environmental protection despite its critics

Evidence

As it became apparent during the 1970s that NEPA’s mandate was “essentially procedural” rather than “substantive,” many environmentalists concluded that the “unhappy truth” was that the law lacked any meaningful long-term regulatory impact. The truth about NEPA, though, has been far different. NEPA’s mandate that agencies disclose the environmental impacts of their actions resulted in substantial changes in agency behavior with positive effects on environmental protection. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 393

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: NEPA works by forcing government disclosure that citizens could never fund themselves — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 394; NEPA became the most widely exported American environmental law worldwide — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 817; Environmental law thrives in democracies because they enable information disclosure — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1104

Broader Connections

• Environmental law thrives in democracies because they enable information disclosure #expands (0.80) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1104