(22)NAVIGATING CULTURAL RESOURCES CONSULTATION: COLLISION AVOIDANCE STRATEGIES FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES, ENERGY PROJECT PROPONENTS, ANDTRIBES

摘要

Tribal consultation in our federal system is a lot like the "object collision budget" referenced in Armageddon. Stacks of laws and policies "the size of Texas" govern and inform what "consultation" means and when it means it. Most federal, state, and project proponent budgets devote relatively small percentages of resources to tribal consultation. But the world of tribal consultation is a "big-ass sky," and monitoring only a tiny fraction of it could find you facing down a veritable global killer asteroid of a legal problem. In short, tribal consultation is unwieldy, the laws surrounding it are myriad, and the process can be highly varied and cumbersome, but its big enough that government agencies and proponents should see it coming and take appropriate steps to meet their obligations.