An evaluation of two environmental acts: The national environmental policy act and the environment protection and biodiversity conservation act

In 1969, the US Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act ('NEPA'), which was the first Act to focus on environmental concerns. The passage of NEPA accomplished three things. First, it declared a comprehensive national policy for the environment modeled around notions of sustainability and ecosystem balance (Title I). Second, NEPA introduced the environmental impact statement (EIS) as a new procedural tool for federal agencies to use in order to comply with the policy. Third, by establishing the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), it created an oversight mechanism to guide and supervise both the policy and its procedures. NEPA applies to all US federal agencies and is supposed to apply to every agency action that significantly affects environmental quality. The immediate purpose of the law is to give federal agencies the statutory requirement and power to consider how their actions affect the natural environment and incorporate mitigating efforts.1 As a response to the success of NEPA, other countries have adopted the language and style of NEPA.2 Many nations have borrowed tone and content directly from NEPA to produce their own NEPA-like statutes.3 One such document that adopted the tone and content of NEPA is the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) ('EPBC Act'), which is the Australian Government's primary piece of environmental legislation. Compared to the earlier Australian environmental laws, the EPBC Act represents a fundamental reform of the Commonwealth's environmental law, allowing for the Commonwealth to join with the states and territories of Australia to provide a national scheme of environment protect and biodiversity conservation.4 The purpose of NEPA and the EPBC Act is to implement policy that influences the relationship between humans and the environment in which they live. Although the guidelines set forth by NEPA and the EPBC Act vary significantly, the ultimate goal is the same: environmental protection. Although these Acts continue to be challenged, and implementation procedures continue to be adjusted, they are milestone documents that will hopefully continue to guide their respective governments in the future protection of the human environment.