The National Environmental Policy Act: Critical Path to Major Federal Actions

In The National Environmental Policy Act: Critical Path to Major Federal Actions, you'll learn ...

• A foundational understanding of the National Environment Policy Act and practical application principles
• Common construction project planning pitfalls that can occur when ensuring environmental compliance for federal action
• The significance of NEPA and ways to ensure your project team is supported in fulfilling its requirements

Overview

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Credit: 3 PDH

Length: 41 pages

Imagine you are assigned to support a new federal construction project when during a team meeting, the senior project manager asks, “Do we have the documents for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance?” Immediately everyone around the table asks, “What is NEPA, and what does it have to do with this project?” The senior project manager replies, “Only one of the biggest showstoppers along this project’s critical path.” Yikes! Everyone who understands the term “critical path” knows that any project milestones along this path can make or break the project’s schedule.

The intent of this course is to provide a foundational understanding of the National Environmental Policy Act and practical application principles. While many believe environmental stewardship is the responsibility of environmental engineers/scientists, marine/terrestrial biologists, and historians, the truth is that NEPA underlines the importance of teamwork amongst all technical project stakeholders. Stakeholders include civil engineers, mechanical engineers, architects, planners, and construction project managers. This course will help you avoid common construction project planning pitfalls while ensuring environmental harmony for major federal action.

Depending on who you ask, the National Environmental Policy Act is either viewed positively or negatively. Often, the latter is the result of people not being familiar with the regulation and its importance to federal construction projects. To explore this law, we will start with the big picture, familiarizing ourselves with the law’s history. We will then move into the specifics of what the law entails. Finally, we will round up this course with a practical application to major federal action. Whether you are the environmental engineer leading the Environmental Impact Statement or the civil engineer providing details on the proposed action, you will know the significance of NEPA and how you can ensure you support your project team in fulfilling the requirements by the end of this course.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• A history of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its relevance to overall environmental stewardship
• Federal agency promulgation of the NEPA
• Different levels of the NEPA
• Key considerations for the EIS development process
• Project team roles and responsibilities as it relates to NEPA document development
• The importance of external and internal stakeholder engagement
• Project team roles and responsibilities as it relates to NEPA decision document compliance (execution)

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 15 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.