This piece originally appeared at Green Tape.
Over the last few years, I've increasingly realized that policymakers think that a categorical exclusion (CX) means that a project doesn't have to go through NEPA.
They could be forgiven for thinking this – after all, CXs are what have historically been used to exempt the vast majority of federal actions from the full NEPA process, from CXs for picnics to CXs for hiring.
But in reality, the development of CXs back in 1978 came about after a decade in which NEPA's scope had expanded far beyond its original intent. They represented, in essence, a tacit admission by the Council on Environmental Quality that every Federal action was a "major Federal action" – and that therefore everything should go through NEPA.
