Term
1)What are the purposes/intents of NEPA?
2)What does it require from federal agencies
3) How would you describe nepas impact on natureal resource management? List at least two strengths and two weaknesses of the law. |
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Definition
1)The purposes of NEPA are to prevent environmental damage while encouraging productive and enjoyable harmony between people and their environment and also to ensure all agency decsion-makers take environmental factors into account and involve the public.
2)NEPA commits the federal gov. to analyze adverse environmental impacts before approving a proposed action. The agency must prepare an Environmental Analysis for any major federal action signigicanyly affecting the quality of the environment.
3) Overall NEPA has had a positive impact on natural resource management. It has allowed the public to become more involved and more informed about decisions that federal agencies are making because they must tell you what they are doing. It also forces the federal agencies to explore alternatives and consider the effects the idea could have on the environment. The downside to NEPA is that it takes a long time to get through the process so it can delay opperations that would be better off starting sooner than later. Also there is no post decisinal analysys on what is actually decided so if the wrong choice is picked it could be years before it is reversed. |
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Term
Sources of NR Law
1)Constitutional Law
2)Statuatory Law
3)Administrative Law
4)Common Law |
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Definition
1) The 5th amendment is constitutional law, it prevents the government from taking private land for public use without compensation. This relates to NR because if the gov wants to take farm land to turn it into wilderness they must compensate the owner of that land. These laws are written into the constitution.
2) Statuatory law is written by congress . An example is NEPA which which is a law the congress implimented to regulate federal agencies making them analize the impacts that projects can have on the environment.
3) Administrative Law is written by federal agencies. Like the roadless rule that set aside almost 60 million acres of land that were designated roadless.
4)Common law are laws that come from the courts. in the trial Kleppe v. NM the supreme court founded in favor of the federal government showing that congress had the power to protect wildlife on its land because of the property clause and it overuled state laws because of the supremecy clause |
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Term
1) explain the prominent values during the disposition era?
2) give an example of a policy that embodies these values?
3) what dies wilkinson mean by the lords of yesterday?
4) what are todays values? |
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Definition
1) manifest destiny, utilitarianism, economic development individual rights and initiatives.
2) Homestead act of 1862, gave people free land as long as they cultivated it for five years. This was an incentive for economic development and moving people out west embodies the value of manifest destiny saying that it is our right to expand over all the land.
3) the lords of yesterday are laws that were put in place to help develop the west like the hardock mining law which allowed anyone to go onto federal land and extract what they wanted. He referes to them as lords of yesterday because they were implemented in a time when it seems there was no end to our natural resources but now when we can see thea we must conserve our resources some of these lords are still in effect because of inertia and it is hard to slow them down.
4) our current values are not to just get as much as we can from the earth but to extract what we need sustainably and the government should receive compensation when federal lands are developed and resource development should be done to promote stable and healthy communities. |
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Term
1) give an example of an ambiguous statute?
2) what is meant by administrative discretion?
3) discuss two different reasons congress writes ambiguous statutes. |
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Definition
1) an example of an ambiguous statute is the multiple use mandate that states that agencies must manage for timber, range, wildlife, watershed, and recreation to suit the needs of the people. What the agencies must then determine is what is best for the people on their own.
2) when the power is givin to the "experts" instead of making them follow strict laws that may not be in the best interest of anyone to use.
3) Congress writes ambiguous statutes because they can protect themselves, if a problem arises they can say that they did not tell an agency to do that so it sends blame down the line. Another reason they write ambiguous laws is to allow for flexibility in site specific circumstances. |
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Term
1) What is rulemaking? what is its relationship to stautroy guidance from congress? be sure to discuss who makes rules, that their purpose is and what agency discretion is.
2) discripe the rulemakeing process including information, prticipation and accountability. |
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Definition
1) Rulemaking is the process that federal agencies must go through to interpret statuatory acts written by congress to make administrative law and write regluations. agency discretion is the fact that congress writes ambiguous statutes so that the agencies can interpret them in the correct way, they do this because congress assumes agencies are experts and will be able to do the best possible thing with the act.
2) first the agency must inform the public of what they want to do and allow 30 -180 days for the public to comment on the idea. Next, the fule is published with response to comments, the rule is codified in C.F.R. then there is a judicial review of rules, they look to see if there was any procedural or substantine violation in the process of making the rule. the standard of judicial review under the APA is that the courts shall find something unlawful if; they do not follow the process, if they do not support enough evidence for the rule or if it is not in accordance with the law . |
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