Opinion ID: 358776
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Review of NWRS Operations

Text: 24 Plaintiffs' logic-based contention (See note 20 and accompanying text Supra ) leads logically to the conclusion that an EIS would have to accompany every budget request for the annual operation of an environmental-conservation program, or indeed of an agency whose activities may have significant environmental impact. 27 The principle of Reductio ad absurdum is part of the landscape of logic. Plaintiffs have not suggested a limiting principle to their logic. 25 Plaintiffs have put forward as an alternative an escape hatch that would limit the EIS requirement to instances of an alleged cutback in some aspect of NWRS activity, as in the level of NWRS staffing and maintenance, leveling of total expenditure, and lack of acquisition of new refuges. 26 The difficulty of limitation still obtains. Every agency has limited resources and has to establish priorities among its programs and activities within a program. Some areas and functions are given new emphasis, others are reduced. Some of these decisions, such as a decision to decline to expand the National Park System, may be of great environmental significance. In general, however, if there is no proposal to change the status quo, there is in our view no proposal for legislation or other major Federal action to trigger the duty under NEPA to prepare an EIS. 27 It would be absurd to require an EIS on every decision on the management of federal land, such as fluctuation in the number of forest fire spotters. We know of no case pushing NEPA to such extremes. The cases cited on this point by the plaintiffs involve initiation or construction of a new project, or a sale of federal resources. 28 The cases requiring an EIS in connection with appropriations requests involve proposals for construction or development of a project. 29 There is a danger of overburdening NEPA by spreading its mandate too widely. The environmental analysis required by NEPA is governed by the rule of reason, as we have held in determining the scope of realistic alternatives to the proposed action 30 and the intensity of the required analysis. 31 A rule requiring preparation of an EIS on the annual budget request for virtually every ongoing program would trivialize NEPA. In our view, section 102(2)(C) contemplates a proposal for taking new action which significantly changes the status quo, not for a routine request for budget approval and appropriations for continuance and management of an ongoing program. 28 We hasten to add the qualification that NEPA may have application to those budget requests that follow or accompany an agency's painstaking review of an ongoing program. The need is for a reading of NEPA that harmonizes its words, its purposes, and the rule of reason. Hence, a proposal for legislation, within § 102(2)(C), is not applicable when the budget and appropriation process is routine, but is fully applicable when the request for budget approval and appropriations is one that ushers in a considered programmatic course following a programmatic review. A review of such a nature reflects choices that should under NEPA be made in the light of a full consideration of pertinent environmental consequences and alternatives. 32 29 We have no occasion at this time to consider whether, or in what instances, a new look may be required because of vastly changed circumstances, either by NEPA or perhaps by some other provision of federal law. Nor need we now consider whether a court may mandate any such duty to take a new look. 30 What we do hold is that an EIS is required when such a new look is had. A new look may be generated periodically and spontaneously as a matter of good management and revitalization of the bureaucracy. It may be a response to external stimulus, as when dramatically changed circumstances cry out for review, or perhaps to accommodate existing programs to changes in the agency's statutory mandate. It is clear that there is wide discretion in the agency to determine when such review will be conducted. That is the essence of government and administration. It is impossible to have a new look at everything all the time. When there is such a new look the ensuing request for appropriations is a proposal for legislation under NEPA. 31 We need not decide whether this kind of painstaking reappraisal of the NWRS was required at the time plaintiffs brought this lawsuit, because the FWS has since undertaken one. The Programmatic EIS evaluates the environmental consequences of the proposed operation of the NWRS and alternatives thereto over the next decade. The FWS has indicated that it intends to make an analysis from scratch at the end of those ten years; in the meantime it will update the environmental study in light of changed plans and circumstances. 33 32 The Programmatic EIS sets forth the environmental consequences of the FWS's present plan to operate the NWRS at a roughly constant real level of expenditure with priority given to its conservation mission over public use recreational and educational. It also considers the effects of alternate program priorities and expenditures. The adequacy of the EIS for what it is (a long-term strategy and analysis) has not been challenged by plaintiffs on appeal. The controversy presented to this court concerns the district court's ruling that an EIS is required in the future for each and every annual budget request. We hold to the contrary.