Summary of the National Environmental Policy Act and Implementing Regulations - Environmental Impact Analysis: Process and Methods - page 40

identification of opportunities for public input, and contact information of
an agency representative who is available to respond to public questions and
requests. The purpose of the NOI is not to inform the public of all aspects of
the proposed action or scope of the EIS but rather to provide enough infor-
mation for stakeholders to determine whether they have potential interest
and thus prompt them to seek additional information and, if warranted,
initiate their active involvement. If an action under agency consideration is
of national concern, the notice must be posted in the Federal Register and
by mail to organizations (e.g., environmental advocacy groups and project
proponents) that are reasonably expected to be stakeholders in the NEPA
process. For actions of more local concern, notice must include direct com-
munication to appropriate state agencies and through local media. Although
not envisioned when the CEQ Regulations were promulgated, agency web
pages and social media contacts to interest groups have become an impor-
tant part of public notification.
As discussed above, coordination among federal agencies is a goal and
element critical to the success of NEPA, and the CEQ Regulations (§1504) pro-
vide a mechanism to force and enforce this goal. As does the Act, the CEQ
Regulations encourage the lead federal agency to involve other agencies with
jurisdiction, interest, expertise, or responsibility over resources potentially
affected (e.g., U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service if actions could affect
marine mammals) early in the NEPA process. The CEQ Regulations go a
step further and provide a procedure to resolve differences between the lead
agency and another agency whenever voluntary cooperation is not success-
ful. This process first requires the disagreeing agencies to exert a “concerted
and timely effort” to resolve the differences, and if these are unsuccess-
ful, the issue is referred to the CEQ for resolution. Other interested parties
(e.g., environmental advocacy groups, states, or proponents of the proposed
action) can add their views on the agency disagreement and CEQ has the
option of holding public meetings or hearings on the issue. CEQ has the
option of ruling in favor of one of the agencies or returning it to them for
further negotiation. The CEQ referral process has rarely been used because
with the threat of delays and bad publicity, a workable solution can usually
be found.

2.3.5 Record of Decision

Once the environmental implications of a federal action under consider-
ation have been analyzed, documented (including preparation of an EIS as
described in Section 3.1.3), subjected to public comment and review, and con-
sidered by the responsible federal agency officials, a decision by the agency
must be made. This decision is the final action under NEPA and no legal
challenge to a federal action (see, Section 3.7, NEPA Enforcement, of the topic)
can be made under NEPA until the agency has concluded all deliberation
and issued an ROD. The process for making the decision in compliance with