NEPA Process and Specific Requirements - Environmental Impact Analysis: Process and Methods - page 96

The advantages and experience of CATEXs came to light during implemen-
tation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act,
or Economic Stimulus). This act was passed in response to the 2008 global
economic crisis as a method to create jobs and at the same time strengthen
the country's infrastructure. The goal was to create jobs as rapidly as possi-
ble and thus fund the construction, rather than the planning or engineering
aspects of public works projects, because the construction phase typically
creates 10 to 20 times the number of jobs and economic stimulus compared to
the planning and design phases. Thus projects that were “shovel ready” and
could be constructed immediately were given preference.
As important as the economic stimulus and construction job creation were,
Congress and President Obama made the conscious decision not to ignore
NEPA and environmental considerations. In fact they incorporated the concept
of CATEX in development of the act by specifying in Section 1609 of the Act that
all federal agencies devote adequate resources to ensuring that applicable envi-
ronmental reviews are carried out under NEPA. However they are to be com-
pleted in an expeditious fashion using the shortest existing, applicable process
allowed by the law, which as discussed above maximizes the use of CATEX.
This approach worked in expediting economic stimulus while maintain-
ing consideration of the environment. From January to December 2009, there
were approximately 171,000 projects under the Recovery Act. Of these proj-
ects NEPA was found not to be applicable for 4141, EAs were performed for
7600, and EISs conducted for about 800. The vast majority of projects (158,316
representing 93%) qualified as CATEXs and could be implemented immedi-
ately (Bass 2010). The lessons learned from the Recovery Act for streamlin-
ing NEPA and applying CATEXs has had an effect on the broader NEPA
practice. Following the frantic activity of the Recovery Act, some agencies
initiated changes to their NEPA procedures to incorporate techniques and
approaches, including maximizing the use of CATEX for making NEPA
compliance more efficient and expedient (Bass 2010).
3.7 NEPAEnforcement
NEPA is a law with associated implementing regulations, but no one has ever
been arrested, charged, imprisoned, or fined for violating any NEPA provi-
sions or regulations. The philosophy behind NEPA enforcement is that NEPA
applies only to federal agencies, and if an agency can be trusted to imple-
ment policies critical to the defense, diplomacy, safety, education, and health
of the nation, without threat of incrimination, they can be trusted to comply
with the national environmental policy. Thus NEPA enforcement is based on
trusting the federal agencies to carry out the national policy, but as President
Ronald Reagan once stated in a now famous comment on the nuclear weapons