{"id":1557,"date":"2012-07-10T14:05:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T19:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2012-07-10T14:05:20","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T19:05:20","slug":"nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>By Adam Riedel, CCCL Associate Director<\/p>\n<p>Environmental impact statements (EISs) should analyze the potential for energy efficiency to reduce the adverse impacts of new projects, to make the projects smaller, or to provide more benign alternatives.\u00a0 The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state counterparts require EISs for major actions, and provide numerous opportunities for public participation in the EIS process.\u00a0 These opportunities can be used to press for greater consideration, and perhaps adoption, of energy efficiency measures.<\/p>\n<p>These are the findings of a new white paper just published on-line by Columbia Law School\u2019s Center for Climate Change Law.\u00a0 The paper, written by CCCL Associate Director Adam Riedel, serves as a guide to commenting on and challenging EISs on the basis of insufficient consideration of the issues of energy efficiency and conservation.\u00a0 The white paper discusses the statutory and regulatory basis underlying the consideration of energy efficiency and conservation in EISs and then tracks the EIS regulatory pathway, pointing out where and how energy efficiency comments can be injected into the NEPA process.\u00a0 The paper concludes with a discussion of the procedural course for bringing NEPA litigation.<\/p>\n<p>NEPA requires the preparation of an EIS for all &#8220;major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.&#8221;\u00a0 One topic that often receives insufficient attention in EISs is energy efficiency and conservation.\u00a0 Energy conservation is the reduction of the unnecessary use of energy.\u00a0 Energy efficiency involves increasing the ratio of energy output to energy input.\u00a0 In other words, energy efficiency involves obtaining a level of production output with a decreasing energy input.\u00a0 Energy efficiency and energy conservation have tremendous potential to mitigate the environmental impacts associated with energy usage stemming from a proposed project or action.\u00a0 Additionally, in some instances, energy efficiency and\/or conservation may be viable alternatives to a proposed project or action in its entirety.\u00a0 The scant attention often paid to energy efficiency in EISs combined with its significant mitigation potential and role as a possible alternative to certain projects makes it a fruitful commenting opportunity in the NEPA process and a potential avenue for challenging inadequate EISs through litigation.<\/p>\n<p>The paper is available <a title=\"Encouraging Energy Efficiency Through NEPA Comments\" href=\"https:\/\/www.law.columbia.edu\/null\/download?&amp;exclusive=filemgr.download&amp;file_id=621883\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adam Riedel, CCCL Associate Director Environmental impact statements (EISs) should analyze the potential for energy efficiency to reduce the adverse impacts of new projects, to make the projects smaller, or to provide more benign alternatives.\u00a0 The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state counterparts require EISs for major actions, and provide numerous opportunities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":829,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5680,5676],"tags":[9434,9430],"class_list":{"0":"post-1557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-clean-energy","7":"category-nepa","8":"tag-energy-efficiency","9":"tag-litigation","10":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency - Climate Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency - Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Adam Riedel, CCCL Associate Director Environmental impact statements (EISs) should analyze the potential for energy efficiency to reduce the adverse impacts of new projects, to make the projects smaller, or to provide more benign alternatives.\u00a0 The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state counterparts require EISs for major actions, and provide numerous opportunities [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-10T19:05:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Monica Molina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sabincenter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sabincenter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Monica Molina\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Monica Molina\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/634cab40098ec82a55b1f59dafa7ce0a\"},\"headline\":\"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-10T19:05:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":370,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Energy Efficiency\",\"Litigation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Clean Energy\",\"NEPA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/\",\"name\":\"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency - Climate Law Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-10T19:05:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/10\\\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Law Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/files\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/files\\\/2023\\\/02\\\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png\",\"width\":2752,\"height\":260,\"caption\":\"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/sabincenter\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/634cab40098ec82a55b1f59dafa7ce0a\",\"name\":\"Monica Molina\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\\\/climatechange\\\/author\\\/mcm2214\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency - Climate Law Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency - Climate Law Blog","og_description":"By Adam Riedel, CCCL Associate Director Environmental impact statements (EISs) should analyze the potential for energy efficiency to reduce the adverse impacts of new projects, to make the projects smaller, or to provide more benign alternatives.\u00a0 The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state counterparts require EISs for major actions, and provide numerous opportunities [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/","og_site_name":"Climate Law Blog","article_published_time":"2012-07-10T19:05:20+00:00","author":"Monica Molina","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sabincenter","twitter_site":"@sabincenter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Monica Molina","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/"},"author":{"name":"Monica Molina","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/person\/634cab40098ec82a55b1f59dafa7ce0a"},"headline":"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency","datePublished":"2012-07-10T19:05:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/"},"wordCount":370,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#organization"},"keywords":["Energy Efficiency","Litigation"],"articleSection":["Clean Energy","NEPA"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/","name":"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency - Climate Law Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-10T19:05:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2012\/07\/10\/nepa-can-be-used-as-a-tool-to-promote-energy-efficiency\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NEPA Can Be Used as a Tool to Promote Energy Efficiency"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/","name":"Climate Law Blog","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#organization","name":"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2023\/02\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/files\/2023\/02\/21-SabinBlog_Banner-1.png","width":2752,"height":260,"caption":"Sabin Center for Climate Change Law"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/sabincenter"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/#\/schema\/person\/634cab40098ec82a55b1f59dafa7ce0a","name":"Monica Molina","url":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/author\/mcm2214\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/829"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}