Re: Early Public Participation Under NEPA?

[Peter Strauss <pstrauss@igc.org>]

Unless NEPA Guidelines have changed since I last looked at them, I 
believe that the lead agency must initiate public parrticpation in a 
scoping meeting, which will set the tone of the EIS. However, I should 
think that another way to approach this is to establish that NEPA must be 
complied with before any major and significant decisions are made. One 
of the criteria that agencies must (?) or should consider is whether the 
action that they are taking is controversial. 
Both of these approaches were set forth in the CEQ Guidelines on NEPA. I 
haven't looked for a while, but I haven't heard of major changes.
Peter