Instructor:TBD


Climate change is rapidly emerging as the nation’s most urgent and highest visibility environmental problem. Because of recent scientific and legal developments, as well as growing public concern about climate change, federal agencies are grappling with how best to address climate change in environmental impact assessments prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the nation’s most comprehensive environmental law.

Overview: This web and audio seminar will review recent legal developments on NEPA and climate change and present practical approaches for conducting a NEPA climate change analysis. First offered in August 2007, this new seminar will summarize updated scientific information from the latest report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC). It will also review in detail the latest NEPA climate change case that overturned proposed federal fuel economy standards for light trucks, Center for Biological Diversity v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (CBD v. NHTSA) (9th Circuit, November 15, 2007).

Instructor: The seminar instructor is NEPA expert Al Herson, JD, an SWCA Principal with more than 30 years experience, co-author of The NEPA Book, and a skilled NEPA trainer.

Who Should Participate? You will benefit from this seminar if you are a federal, state, or local agency staff member or decision maker; attorney; consultant; interest group member; academic; or anyone else involved in NEPA implementation. Armed with the latest information and advice, with your questions answered, you will be able to implement NEPA more effectively and with less risk. Please feel free to forward this invitation to your colleagues who could also benefit from the seminar.

Special Seminar Topics Include:

• The emerging scientific consensus on climate change and its effects, including latest findings from the draft UNIPCC Fourth Assessment Report issued in November 2007
• Why and how climate change should be considered in NEPA documents
• The types of proposed federal actions that are most vulnerable to climate change challenges
• CBD v. NHTSA: new requirements for climate change cumulative impact assessment and alternatives that reduce climate change impacts
• Other NEPA litigation in the federal courts, both decided and ongoing
• Recent climate change developments under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and their NEPA implications
• A practical 3-step approach to analyzing climate change in NEPA documents