NRDC v. WINTER: IS NEPA IMPEDING NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS?

摘要

The emergency circumstances regulation does not encompass on-going, planned activities. Thus, the Winter court had no choice but to find that CEQ improperly applied the regulation. To better address compelling national interests that are planned but cannot be delayed, such as the case in Winter, NEPA should be amended to include a national security exception.rnThis is not to say the military should have a "free pass," but there must be some sort of exception for military training that cannot be delayed, especially after the military makes reasonable attempts to comply with NEPA. In Winter, the Navy attempted to comply with NEPA, but due to the lengthy and complex EIS process, it was not able to complete an EIS after over a year of efforts. The Navy could not delay training until the EIS was completed without jeopardizing the security of the nation and should not have had such a demand placed on them by a procedural environmental law.