ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT

MAF 510

 

Spring 2006

 

Meeting Times: MW 4:30 - 5:45 p.m. (SA 114, RSMAS).  Occasionally, I will have to miss classes, and we will make them up in a mutually agreeable schedule.

 

Instructor: Daniel Suman, South Grosvenor 126, RSMAS (Tel.: 305-421-4685; Fax: 305-421-4675); dsuman@rsmas.miami.edu

 

Office Hours: MW 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. (So. Grosvenor 126, RSMAS) or by Appointment.  Also in Coral Gables on TTh from 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. at the Student Lounge at the UM Law School.

 

Overview:

 

This course will take a broad view of environmental planning and analysis while focusing specifically on the requirements for and preparation of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS).  We will look in detail at the statutory requirements and procedures at the federal level.  Our approach will rely heavily on judicial opinions that provide compelling examples of environmental disputes and controversies.

 

We will also read excerpts from policy and social science essays that consider the successes and failures of the EIS process, the effect of the EIS process on bureaucracies, and the participation of the public in environmental planning.

 

An additional unit will consider some of the substantive requirements of environmental impact analyses, such as assessments of the physical and biological environments, as well as socioeconomic impacts.  Students will specialize in an EIS and prepare a case study based on the Environmental Document.

 

Texts:    Fischman & Squillace, Environmental Decisionmaking (FS)

 

Course Reader (R) available from Instructor at cost

 

Requirements & Grading:

 

You are expected to attend class meetings and participate in discussions.  Readings should be completed before class.  Grades will be calculated as follows:

 

 

Exercise #1 (written)   -      25%

Exercise #2 (written)   -      20%

Exercise #3 (written)   -      20%

Exercise #4 (Group Project) -   25%

Class Participation -           10%

 

Exercise #1 will be an analysis of a current draft or final Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Assessment.  Maximum length will be 4 double-spaced typed pages.  During the first two weeks of the semester (before January 25) you must select an EIS (draft or final) from the Federal Register (found in Government Documents of Richter Library or the Law Library) or the Internet and request a copy from the appropriate federal agency or consulting firm.  Another source for current EISs is the Uniform Resource Locator for the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Web Site/NEPANet (http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/nepanet.htm) or one of the many links posted on www.solano.com/book_links.htm.  This document will be the basis for Exercise #1.  Exercises #2 and #3 will be take-home essays based on hypothetical situations that I will provide.

 

The Group Project or Exercise #4 will involve critical analyses of one of several local topics related to Everglades Restoration and the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (CERP).  Teams of 3 people will explore various themes related to each project.  Potential themes to develop include: the history of project; description of the project; legal bases for the project; the role of natural science in the project; agencies involved in the project; other social/economic actors (interest groups) and their stake in the project; potential environmental, social, and economic impacts (both positive and negative) of the project; relationship to other projects in the nearby area; obstacles to the implementation of the project; funding issues.  Each team will visit their site, interview government regulators and other interested groups, and present their findings in oral and written form during the last week of the course.  I will provide guidelines for the case studies later during the semester, and we will select topics upon completion of Exercise #1.

 

Topics include:

 

1)     C-111 Canal Modification and Re-plumbing

2)     UM Pinelands Development Project

3)     Expansion of the Miami-Dade County Urban Development Boundary (UDB)

4)     Restoration of Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands

5)     Government Acquisition of Lands to support Everglades Restoration (CERP)

Course Schedule:

                         INTRODUCTION

 

Class 1 -     Course Overview

 

Bregman & Mackenthun, "Purpose of the Environmental Impact Statement" [HO]

 

Bregman & Mackenthun, "The Environmental Impact Statement Process" [HO]

 

Gilpin, Environmental Impact Assessment,

The EIS Process in North America [113-123] [HO], EIA Approaches [1-15]

 

Class 2 - Citizens to Preserve Overton Park [FS 122]

 

                  THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS

 

Class 3 - Chevron U.S.A. v. NRDC [FS 139]

 

               INTRODUCTION TO NEPA, ESA & NHPA

 

Class 4 - Calvert Cliffs [FS 150]

 

Class 5 - Northern Spotted Owl v. Hodel [FS 173]

TVA v. Hill [FS 203]

 

Class 6 - Defenders of Wildlife [FS 179]

              Pueblo of Sandia v. US [FS 185]

 

Exercise #1 due

 

 

             SUBSTANTIVE EFFECTS ON DECISIONMAKING

 

Class 7 - Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council

                   [FS 191]

Baltimore Gas & Electric [FS 195]

 

Class 8 - Scoping Session for Exercise #4

 

        THE DECISION TO PREPARE ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTS

 

Class 9 - Hanly II [FS 227]

          Conner v. Burford [FS 236]

 

Class 10 -    Marsh v. ONRC [FS 244]

Scottsdale Mall [HO]

Defenders of Wildlife [FS 253]

 

Class 11 -    Metropolitan Edison v. PANE [FS 264]

SIPI [FS 270]

Kleppe v. Sierra Club [FS 277]

 

Class 12 -    E.O. 12114 [FS 304]

EDF v. Massey [FS 306]

              Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife [FS 315]

 

Exercise #2 distributed

 

 

                 NEPA: THE SUBSTANCE OF AN EIS

 

Classes 13 & 14 -

 

Gilpin, EIA Methodologies, pp. 35-62

Rau, "Summarization of Environmental

Impact"

 

Class 15 -    Moore, The EIS Process and Environmental Law   

 

Classes 16 & 17 - 

 

              Erickson, "Introduction to Assessment of

                   Impacts: Physical Environment"

 

Friesma & Culhane, "Social Impacts, Politics, and the Environmental Impact Statement Process"

 

 

              THE SCOPE OF NEPA AND ESA DOCUMENTS

 

Class 18 -    NRDC v. Morton [FS 319]

Vermont Yankee [FS 325]

Citizens Against Burlington [FS 331]

 

Class 19 -    Thomas v. Peterson [FS 352]

Taxpayers Watchdog [FS 360]

 

Class 20 -    CEQ, Considering Cumulative Impacts

 under NEPA

 

 

Class 21 -    Sylvester v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

[FS 366]

Methow Valley [FS 373]

Cabinet Mountain Wilderness [FS 381]

Roosevelt Campbello [FS 387]

 

               POLICY ASPECTS OF THE EIS PROCESS

 

Class 22 - Sax, "The (Unhappy) Truth about NEPA"

Cramton & Berg, "On Leading a Horse to

Water: NEPA and the Federal Bureaucracy"

Fairfax, "A Disaster in the Environmental Movement"

Renwick, "Eclipse of NEPA as Environmental

     Policy"

 

Class 23 - Caldwell, "NEPA Revisited: A Call for a Constitutional

Amendment"

McElfish, "Back to the Future"

Erickson, "Consultants and the Assessment

Process"

 

Class 24 -    Manheim, "Ethical Issues in Environmental

                    Impact Assessment"

Susskind & Dunlap, "The Importance of Nonobjective Judgments in Environmental Impact Assessments"

 

Class 25 -    Bregman & Mackenthun, "Public

                   Participation"

Jain, "Public Participation"

Gilpin, Public Participation, Inquiries,

and Mediation, pp. 63-73

 

Exercise #3 distributed

 

Class 26 -    CEQ, The NEPA: A Study of its Effectiveness

after 25 Years

 

              NEPA Task Force, Modernizing NEPA Implementation,

Executive Summary

         

 

Classes 27 & 28 - CLASS PRESENTATIONS: Exercise #4

 

April 29 (Friday) - Exercise #4 due at 5 p.m.