[HN Gopher] How the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Works
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       How the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Works
        
       Author : jseliger
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2022-08-27 17:59 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (constructionphysics.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (constructionphysics.substack.com)
        
       | rayiner wrote:
       | The irony is that NEPA has nuked the ability to densify and build
       | infrastructure to respond to climate change. It takes huge
       | amounts of money to even do an EIS, say to build a rail line. So
       | you get voters to sign off on that. Then whatever enthusiasm you
       | built up for that dissipates in the 4-5 years on average that it
       | takes to do the EIS. Then you litigate it for some more years
       | after that. Then a decade later you ask voters for more money to
       | build the thing. By then the project is substantially less
       | attractive due to changes from the EIS process. You present this
       | worse thing to voters, who think they already paid for the
       | subway, and ask them for even more money. And they're like wtf.
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | Cynically, this can be the point.
         | 
         | When building anything at all becomes prohibitively hard, most
         | things don't get built, and the environment remains unchanged,
         | that is, presented.
         | 
         | Only things absence of which causes a real, strong, unceasing
         | pain can withstand the process and finally get built, at much
         | larger expense and at a smaller scale than planned initially.
        
           | rayiner wrote:
           | It is the point but there's nothing cynical about it. In the
           | 1960s-1970s when NEPA was passed, the environmental movement
           | was focused on conservation. They didn't think subways were a
           | great thing. The alignment of environmentalists and urbanists
           | is a later trend that's arisen in response to climate change
           | concerns.
        
         | mistrial9 wrote:
         | professional urban planning is very contentious, time-consuming
         | and complex. Moronic side-jeering is definitely part of that
         | friction.
         | 
         | source: professional urban planners
        
         | woodruffw wrote:
         | I think the EIS process is inefficient, but is there any
         | evidence that voters don't understand it and consequently
         | believe that they're fully funding projects? I find that hard
         | to believe.
        
           | Kamq wrote:
           | I'm a voter and I have zero idea how the EIS process actually
           | works.
           | 
           | I could definitely see people think that the first time a
           | budget is passed on something, it's funded.
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-27 23:00 UTC)