On August 10, 1994, the Department of Energy/Nevada Operations Office (DOE/NV) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire Nevada Test Site (NTS) and seven off -site locations in the State of Nevada. In the EIS, DOE was to consider the following site management alternatives: (A) continue current operations and interagency project activities and programs. (B) discontinue operations, except those related to monitoring, security, and human health and safety, and decommission, (C) expand the use of the NTS to support national defense and nondefense programs, including waste management and storage, transportation, environmental restoration, and research and development; or (D) implement alternate use of withdrawn lands for new programs including unprecedented public access to remote areas for education and recreation. The structure, organization, and content of the EIS document were to be developed in accordance with the law, and included an assessment of long -term consequences of pro-posed alternatives, evaluation of mitigation strategies, and development of a resource management plan. Thus, in 1995 DOE/NV released a Draft Implementation Plan that documented the agency's approach for preparing the EIS, an important aspect of which is the incorporation of public opinion. In the same year, DOE/NV began consultations with the CGTO as required by NEPA, by the President's Council on Environmental Quality (Federal Register 43: 230, 44978 -56007), and the American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Government Policy, as amended in 2000. The CGTO appointed seven of its representatives (the American Indian Writers Subgroup or AIWS) to research the potential adverse effects of each action alternative on American Indian resources, to propose mitigation alternatives, and to outline future involvement of the member tribes and organizations in NTS programs and activities. The result of this endeavor was unprecedented, in that DOE agreed to include excerpts of text prepared by the AIWS in the main body of the EIS document and to publish the American Indian Assessment: Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-site Locations in the State of Nevada: A Native American Resource Document in its entirety, as Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996). In 2002 and 2008, reports were prepared that addressed American Indian responses to issues raised by the federally mandated five and ten year supplement analyses. This process involved looking at the 1996 Environmental Impact Assessment conducted to consider whether the issues Indian people assessed are still being addressed by the EIS and whether new issues have arisen that would require agency action such as a new Environmental Impact Statement assessment. Included in this collection is the original Appendix G of the Final NTS EIS (DOE /NV 1996), the 2002 Supplement Analysis and the 2007 Supplement Analysis. These efforts triggered a new Environmental Impact Statement which was completed in early 2013.

Nearly 45 years ago, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law to become the first national policy for the environment of the United States. As it has evolved over time through implementation and litigation, numerous countries and states around the world have emulated NEPA with similar environmental impact assessment requirements. Many scholars have evaluated the success of the legislation in accomplishing its lofty goals. Most commonly, however, these studies address the procedural performance of agencies through the creation of environmental impact statements. This thesis examines the effectiveness of NEPA in accomplishing its substantive, rather than procedural, goals by identifying a set of values essential to meeting the fundamental intent of the Act. The values are then evaluated in the context of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Project to determine whether or not the NEPA process was effective in this case and to derive lessons for its future implementation.

This dissertation examines how the U.S. Forest Service implements and uses public involvement during the agency's planning processes as mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act. Focused from the perspective of the agency personnel leading the process, this study is informed by both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Chapters two and three report the results of a web-based survey completed by 489 Forest Service employees. Chapter two shows that these employees most commonly view public involvement as a means for obtaining substantive information that could be used to improve the management decision. Chapter two also reveals that agency personnel who view public involvement as only a procedural requirement tend to achieve less positive process outcomes, but those who explicitly create opportunities for interactive dialogue with the public tend to achieve more positive outcomes, including more positive perceptions of the public involvement process and agency-public relationships. Chapter three shows that agency employees commonly believe more public influence should and does happen during the earlier stages of the planning process, but that agency employees also desire more public influence throughout the process. Chapter four uses qualitative interviews with 16 of the survey respondents to build upon the insights from chapter three. By exploring what may be constraining public influence from occurring at the desired levels, chapter four describes how agency personnel can impact how much public influence happens. The final chapter highlights the importance of looking beyond the specific public involvement technique employed during the process to the nature of the agency-public interactions. Agency personnel who are willing to engage in extra effort to translate public values into substantive management concerns generally achieve more desirable forms of public influence. They also help satisfy the public's desires to communicate their visions for the management of the National Forests. Key barriers include heavy workloads, negative views of the public, and over-reliance on minimum procedural requirements. Conversely, strong normative beliefs about the positive role of the public in agency planning, leadership commitment, and a recognition of the discretion afforded planning personnel can lead to higher levels of desired public influence. / Ph. D.

A consideração da variável ambiental nos processos decisórios de Políticas, Planos e Programas vem se mostrando um fator importante na busca pela sustentabilidade. A Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica se apresenta como o principal instrumento de planejamento para esta finalidade, em especial nos países que já possuem uma estrutura jurídica e institucional sólidas, além de tradição na prática de planejamento. A experiência internacional abordada pela pesquisa (Nova Zelândia, Inglaterra e Portugal) evidencia que arranjos institucionais já consolidados, dentre outros fatores, possibilita a utilização da AAE mediante a adequação de suas etapas às especificidades do contexto onde será adotada, em face de sua flexibilidade, ainda que aplicável a realidades distantes. Apesar de possuir uma estrutura de planejamento frágil, o Brasil apresenta iniciativas institucionais para operacionalização da AAE, no entanto, desfocadas em virtude de ausência de marcos conceituais claros e procedimentos definidos, ao contrário do que ocorre no cenário internacional. Através da análise integrada dos cenários internacional e nacional, este trabalho discute e investiga, a partir da experiência observada nos países selecionados, alternativas jurídicas, institucionais e de procedimentos para a incorporação da AAE em sua estrutura interna, incluindo a relação desta ferramenta com instrumentos da Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente. A pesquisa evidenciou que o Brasil não apresenta ações efetivas e práticas no sentido de tutelar os recursos naturais, embora haja previsões neste sentido tanto na Constituição Federal quanto na Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente. A experiência internacional retratou que a utilização da AAE pode se mostrar importante para mitigar este quadro, mediante o estabelecimento de um sistema que possibilite integrar os diversos níveis estratégicos de planejamento, incorporando o valor ambiental em todas as suas agendas e influenciando a tomada de decisão. Este trabalho apresenta, então, alternativa para que, tanto a aplicação da AAE quanto outras ferramentas (Licenciamento Ambiental e Estudo de Impacto Ambiental) não sejam objeto de submissão ou pressão imposta pelo poder econômico, concluindo que a eventual adoção formal da AAE no Brasil necessita de regras jurídicas claramente definidas que permitam implementar uma estrutura de planejamento participativo transparente e que possibilite a participação popular. / The environmental variable in the decision processes of Policies, Plans, and Programmes has been taken in consideration as an important factor in the pursuit of sustainability. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is presented as the main planning instrument for this purpose, particularly in countries with tradition in the planning practice and solid legal and institutional structures. This research addresses an international experience (New Zealand, England, and Portugal) which shows that, among other factors, established institutional arrangements enables the use of SEA once their steps are adjusted, taking its flexibility into account, to the specificities of the context where it will be adopted, even when dealing with distant realities. Brazil, despite its fragile planning structure, presents institutional initiatives to operationalize the SEA, however, such initiatives are blurred due the lack of clear conceptual frameworks and well defined procedures which are already internationally established. By analyzing both national and international scenarios, this research discusses and investigates, based on the experiences observed in the selected countries, legal, institutional, and procedural alternatives for the incorporation of the SEA in its internal structure, what includes the relationship of this device to National Environmental Policy instruments. The research also shows that Brazil doesn\'t offer effective and practical actions to protect the natural resources, even in a scenario where such protection is planned by the Federal Constitution and the National Environmental Policy. The international experience demonstrates that the use of SEA may mitigate this scenario by establishing a system that allows the integration of the varied strategic levels of planning, adding environmental value and influencing the decisions. This research then presents an alternative so that the use of SEA and other devices may be free of submission or pressure imposed by the economic power, concluding that any formal adoption of SEA in Brazil requires clearly defined legal rules that allow to implement a transparent participatory planning structure that enables citizen participation.

This work has as object the elements that make up the ideo-theoretical fundamentals of the National Environmental Policy. The achievement of research the history of the first interventions of the dictatorial state in the 1970s shows the resistance to more systematic interventions in the "environmental issue", denoting a first ideological trait to substantiate gestational years of NEP, conservatism. Nevertheless, the NEP was also conceived by Brazilian environmentalists who made up the staff of EMS in the 1970, the body that articulated the first proposal of Law 6938/81. The theoretical-methodological perspective adopted for the north of this analysis was a Marxist. The research is characterized as exploratory and for its realization were made bibliographic and documentary research. The analysis clearly realized it is the ideo-theoretical diversity of the environmental movement, which presents different conceptions about the "environmental issue" and ways to deal with it by the state. Such diversity is attributed to the phenomenon of ideological appropriation of environmental thinking by the dominant ideology, which brings to the arena of discussions about the "environmental issue" the role of liberal environmentalist thought. It infers that is this ideo-theoretical perspective that manifests itself with more forceful strokes in the National Environmental Policy. Such traits are manifested both in the body of the law 6938/81, as the logic of its management, especially in the 2000s, in a context that marks the state interventions in Brazil in a movement that goes from the developmentalism neodesenvolvimento, marked by economist prevailing logic in tract of "environmental issue" in Brazil, singular feature of the proposals of liberal environmentalist thought. / A presente dissertação tem como objeto os elementos que conformam os Fundamentos ídeo-teóricos da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente. Na consecução da pesquisa a história das primeiras intervenções do Estado ditatorial nos anos 1970 mostra a resistência a intervenções mais sistemáticas na questão ambiental , denotando um primeiro traço ideológico que fundamentará os anos gestacionais da PNMA, o conservadorismo. Não obstante, a PNMA foi também idealizada pelos ambientalistas brasileiros que compuseram o corpo técnico da SEMA na década de 1970, órgão que articulou a primeira proposta da Lei 6938/81. A perspectiva teórico-metodológica adotada para o norte da presente análise foi a marxista. A pesquisa caracterizou-se como exploratória e para a sua realização foram feitas pesquisas bibliográficas e documentais. Na análise percebeu-se claramente a diversidade ídeo-teórica do movimento ambientalista, que apresenta diferentes concepções acerca da questão ambiental e das formas do seu enfrentamento pelo Estado. Tal diversidade está atribuída ao fenômeno da apropriação ideológica do pensamento ambientalista pela ideologia dominante, que traz para a arena das discussões acerca da questão ambiental o protagonismo do pensamento ambientalista liberal. Infere-se que é esta perspectiva ídeo-teórica que se manifesta com traços mais contundentes na Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente. Tais traços se manifestam tanto no corpo da lei 6938/81, quanto na lógica da sua gestão, em especial nos anos 2000, num contexto que marca as intervenções estatais no Brasil num movimento que vai do desenvolvimentismo ao neodesenvolvimento, marcado pela predominante lógica economicista no trato da questão ambiental no Brasil, traço singular das propostas do pensamento ambientalista liberal.

A consideração da variável ambiental nos processos decisórios de Políticas, Planos e Programas vem se mostrando um fator importante na busca pela sustentabilidade. A Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica se apresenta como o principal instrumento de planejamento para esta finalidade, em especial nos países que já possuem uma estrutura jurídica e institucional sólidas, além de tradição na prática de planejamento. A experiência internacional abordada pela pesquisa (Nova Zelândia, Inglaterra e Portugal) evidencia que arranjos institucionais já consolidados, dentre outros fatores, possibilita a utilização da AAE mediante a adequação de suas etapas às especificidades do contexto onde será adotada, em face de sua flexibilidade, ainda que aplicável a realidades distantes. Apesar de possuir uma estrutura de planejamento frágil, o Brasil apresenta iniciativas institucionais para operacionalização da AAE, no entanto, desfocadas em virtude de ausência de marcos conceituais claros e procedimentos definidos, ao contrário do que ocorre no cenário internacional. Através da análise integrada dos cenários internacional e nacional, este trabalho discute e investiga, a partir da experiência observada nos países selecionados, alternativas jurídicas, institucionais e de procedimentos para a incorporação da AAE em sua estrutura interna, incluindo a relação desta ferramenta com instrumentos da Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente. A pesquisa evidenciou que o Brasil não apresenta ações efetivas e práticas no sentido de tutelar os recursos naturais, embora haja previsões neste sentido tanto na Constituição Federal quanto na Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente. A experiência internacional retratou que a utilização da AAE pode se mostrar importante para mitigar este quadro, mediante o estabelecimento de um sistema que possibilite integrar os diversos níveis estratégicos de planejamento, incorporando o valor ambiental em todas as suas agendas e influenciando a tomada de decisão. Este trabalho apresenta, então, alternativa para que, tanto a aplicação da AAE quanto outras ferramentas (Licenciamento Ambiental e Estudo de Impacto Ambiental) não sejam objeto de submissão ou pressão imposta pelo poder econômico, concluindo que a eventual adoção formal da AAE no Brasil necessita de regras jurídicas claramente definidas que permitam implementar uma estrutura de planejamento participativo transparente e que possibilite a participação popular. / The environmental variable in the decision processes of Policies, Plans, and Programmes has been taken in consideration as an important factor in the pursuit of sustainability. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is presented as the main planning instrument for this purpose, particularly in countries with tradition in the planning practice and solid legal and institutional structures. This research addresses an international experience (New Zealand, England, and Portugal) which shows that, among other factors, established institutional arrangements enables the use of SEA once their steps are adjusted, taking its flexibility into account, to the specificities of the context where it will be adopted, even when dealing with distant realities. Brazil, despite its fragile planning structure, presents institutional initiatives to operationalize the SEA, however, such initiatives are blurred due the lack of clear conceptual frameworks and well defined procedures which are already internationally established. By analyzing both national and international scenarios, this research discusses and investigates, based on the experiences observed in the selected countries, legal, institutional, and procedural alternatives for the incorporation of the SEA in its internal structure, what includes the relationship of this device to National Environmental Policy instruments. The research also shows that Brazil doesn\'t offer effective and practical actions to protect the natural resources, even in a scenario where such protection is planned by the Federal Constitution and the National Environmental Policy. The international experience demonstrates that the use of SEA may mitigate this scenario by establishing a system that allows the integration of the varied strategic levels of planning, adding environmental value and influencing the decisions. This research then presents an alternative so that the use of SEA and other devices may be free of submission or pressure imposed by the economic power, concluding that any formal adoption of SEA in Brazil requires clearly defined legal rules that allow to implement a transparent participatory planning structure that enables citizen participation.

At the time of its construction (1971-1985), the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway was a highly scrutinized public works project, but the years after its construction have remained largely unexplored. Research in the John C. Stennis Collection, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Authority archives, and local newspapers, revealed that despite developers’ promise the waterway’s economic impact failed to live up to expectations, while its environmental influence more than exceeded them. Though rural southerners failed to benefit economically from the waterway, they embraced the environmental changes forced upon the project by the National Environmental Policy Act. Built as a promise of economic development, the Tenn-Tom offers a model of how economics and environmental forces intersected within the rural South. The waterway’s history as an economic and environmental force demands a reconsideration of the role of public works projects in southern environmental history.

One of the most meaningful impacts on environment by human activities is related to the extraction of mineral wealth from the underground, such as oil and natural gas, which may provoke from the suppression of the native forest to implement projects, to social impacts. In the city of Carmópolis, Sergipe, where the exploration and production of oil and natural gas present themselves as the main economic activity, there are only 3,41% of the original native vegetation, which characterizes the compromised natural balance of the ecosystems and life quality of the local population. In this sense, studies that bring an analysis over environmental risks of oil activity, examining social perception of the risks, as well as the effectiveness of legal instruments to intimidate impacts, may rise essential reflections to the subject. Thus, the general objective of this research was to analyze the environmental and technological perception of risks from the inhabitants of the city of Carmópolis, Sergipe. Besides that, it was aimed at analyzing the effectiveness of the National Environmental Policy in the area studied, from the legal instrument of the environmental licensing, as well as Public Civil Actions. The methodology used was based on gathering primary data, with semi structured interviews with the inhabitants of the city, selected by probabilistic sample; and also secondary data from the bibliographical and document research at the environmental agency responsible for the licensing of oil activity in the state. The results have shown that the environmental risk is noticed by the local population, however it is tolerated due to the benefits of the oil activity, or under a different approach, due to the strong economic dependence the population is under, making the adjustments to risky situations to be neglected. On the other hand, the situation of establishment of the National Environmental Policy in Carmópolis still presents many critical points that differ from the objectives of this policy and drive the city out of an efficient and integrated environmental management. It is necessary to understand the environmental problem from the political perspective, and under this view, all the efforts to strengthen participative democracy which contribute to changing this scenario in the search for care with nature. / Una de las actividades antrópicas de impacto ambiental significativo está relacionado com la extracción de riquezas minerales del subsuelo, como el petróleo y gás natural, lo cual puede provocar desde la eliminación de la vegetación nativa para implementación de los proyectos hasta los impactos sociales. En el municipio de Carmópolis, Sergipe, donde la exploración y producción de petróleo y gas se presentan como principal actividad económica, hay solamente 3,41% de la vegetación nativa, que caracteriza daño del equilíbrio natural de los ecossistemas y la calidad de vida de la población local. En este sentido, estudios que proporcionen uma lectura sobre los riesgos ambientales de la actividad petrolera, analizando la percepción social de los riesgos, así como la afectidad de instrumentos legales para la coerción de los impactos, pueden aflorar reflexiones essenciales a la temática. Así, el objetivo general de esta investigación fue analizar la percepción de riesgo ambiental tecnológico de los moradores del município de Carmópolis, Sergipe. Además tratamos de analizar la eficacia de la política nacional sobre el medio ambiente em la zona de estúdio, desde el instrumento de las licencias ambientales, así como de la Acción Civil Pública. La metodología se basa em la recopilación de datos básicos, con entrevistas semiestructuradas com residentes del município seleccionados por muestreo probabilístico; y datos secundarios de la investigación bibliográfica y documental de la agencia medioambiental responsable de las licencias de actividad petrolera en el estado. Los resultados demonstraron que el riesgo ambiental es percibida por la población local, sin embargo, es tolerado em la base de los benefícios de la actividad petrolera, o en otra análisis, la fuerte dependencia económica que está sujeita a la población, haciendo ajustes para las situaciones de riesgo sean ignoradas. Por otro lado, el cuadro de efectividad de la Política Nacional del Medio Ambiente em Carmópolis presenta diversos puntos de criticidad que desatan los objetivos de dicha política y distancian el municipio de una administración eficaz y integrada del medio ambiente. Es necesário comprender la problemática ambiental a partir del sesgo político, y en ese sentido, todos los esfuerzos para fortalecer la democracia participativa contribuyen a la alteración de este escenario em busca del cuidado con la naturaleza. / Uma das atividades antrópicas de significativo impacto ambiental relaciona-se à extração de riquezas minerais do subsolo, como petróleo e gás natural, que pode provocar desde a supressão da vegetação nativa para implantação dos projetos, até impactos sociais. No município de Carmópolis, Sergipe, onde a exploração e produção de petróleo e gás se apresentam como principal atividade econômica, restam apenas 3,41% de vegetação nativa, o que caracteriza o comprometimento do equilíbrio natural dos ecossistemas e da qualidade de vida da população local. Nesse sentido, estudos que proporcionem uma leitura sobre os riscos ambientais da atividade petrolífera, analisando a percepção social dos riscos, bem como a efetividade de instrumentos legais para coerção dos impactos, podem levantar reflexões essenciais à temática. Assim, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa foi analisar a percepção de risco ambiental tecnológico dos moradores do município de Carmópolis, Sergipe. Além disso, buscou-se analisar a efetividade da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente na área de estudo, a partir do instrumento do licenciamento ambiental, bem como da Ação Civil Pública. A metodologia baseou-se na coleta de dados primários, com entrevistas semiestruturadas aos moradores do município, selecionados por amostragem probabilística; e dados secundários oriundos da pesquisa bibliográfica e da pesquisa documental ao órgão ambiental responsável pelo licenciamento da atividade petrolífera no estado. Os resultados demonstraram que o risco ambiental é percebido pela população local, contudo é tolerado em função dos benefícios oriundos da atividade petrolífera, ou em outra análise, da forte dependência econômica a que está sujeita a população, fazendo com que ajustamentos às situações de risco sejam negligenciados. Por outro lado, o quadro de efetivação da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente em Carmópolis apresenta diversos pontos de criticidade que destoam dos objetivos da referida política e distanciam o município de uma gestão eficiente e integrada do meio ambiente. É preciso compreender a problemática ambiental a partir do viés político, e nesse sentido, todos os esforços para fortalecer a democracia participativa contribuem para a alteração deste cenário em busca do cuidado com a natureza. / São Cristóvão, SE