State SEPAs extended NEPA’s reach to private activity and added substantive mandates

Evidence

NEPA also led to a proliferation of similar environmental disclosure requirements in virtually all of the states (and, more recently, tribes). These laws, referred to as “SEPAs” (and “TEPAs”), closely followed NEPA’s model and had as their centerpiece a requirement that the environmental impacts of certain kinds of proposed actions be disclosed. Some of the state laws, however, went further than their federal predecessor. In some states, the information disclosure requirement was not confined to state governmental action but could be triggered by purely private activity with a potentially significant environment impact on the human environment. In other states, the statutory mandates were also not confined to procedural requirements and the preparation of the impact statement. Unlike NEPA (as construed by the U.S. Supreme Court), some state SEPAs included substantive mandates as well, meaning that environmental concerns were entitled to special weight in the determination of whether a proposed activity should proceed. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 398

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; Signed January 1 1970, NEPA created the Council on Environmental Quality — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 324