IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revpol/v37y2020i5p605-633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

NEPA and National Trends in Federal Infrastructure Siting in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Tyler Andrew Scott
  • Nicola Ulibarri
  • Omar Perez Figueroa

Abstract

The United States' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to use environmental impact assessment tools to aggregate scientific information, garner stakeholder input, and weigh alternatives for infrastructure siting and operations decisions.Thus, NEPA plays a sweeping role in federal infrastructure provisioning. Using a comprehensive dataset of Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) prepared under NEPA from 2013 to 2019, we use natural language processing to identify geographic locations and artificial neural networks to classify discussed environmental impacts. We then describe geographic, temporal, and environmental trends in federal infrastructure provisioning. Finally, we use Bayesian hierarchical regression to assess how socio‐economic and demographic covariates shape county‐level EIS counts. Numerous federal agencies are involved in EIS production, but three agencies author the majority of EISs. Total EISs issued annually have declined since the early 2000s. EISs are more frequent in urban coastal counties, but do not show clear distributive trends by income or race.

Suggested Citation

  • Tyler Andrew Scott & Nicola Ulibarri & Omar Perez Figueroa, 2020. "NEPA and National Trends in Federal Infrastructure Siting in the United States," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(5), pages 605-633, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:37:y:2020:i:5:p:605-633
    DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12399
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ropr.12399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dave Donaldson, 2018. "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 899-934, April.
    2. Dan Tong & Qiang Zhang & Steven J. Davis & Fei Liu & Bo Zheng & Guannan Geng & Tao Xue & Meng Li & Chaopeng Hong & Zifeng Lu & David G. Streets & Dabo Guan & Kebin He, 2018. "Targeted emission reductions from global super-polluting power plant units," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 59-68, January.
    3. Deng, Xiangzheng & Huang, Jikun & Uchida, Emi & Rozelle, Scott & Gibson, John, 2011. "Pressure cookers or pressure valves: Do roads lead to deforestation in China?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 79-94, January.
    4. Stuart Shapiro, 2017. "Structure and Process: Examining the Interaction between Bureaucratic Organization and Analytical Requirements," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 34(5), pages 682-699, September.
    5. Haughwout, Andrew F., 2002. "Public infrastructure investments, productivity and welfare in fixed geographic areas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 405-428, March.
    6. Zhang, Jing, 2012. "The impact of water quality on health: Evidence from the drinking water infrastructure program in rural China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 122-134.
    7. Walter Buhr, 2003. "What is infrastructure?," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 107-03, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.
    8. Nicola Ulibarri & Bruce E. Cain & Newsha K. Ajami, 2017. "A Framework for Building Efficient Environmental Permitting Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, January.
    9. Nicola Ulibarri & Jiarui Tao, 2019. "Evaluating environmental permitting process duration: the case of clean water act Section 404 permits," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(12), pages 2124-2144, October.
    10. Lindgren, Finn & Rue, Håvard, 2015. "Bayesian Spatial Modelling with R-INLA," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 63(i19).
    11. Sébastien Roussel, 2020. "Ecosystem Services," Post-Print hal-01945875, HAL.
    12. Deserai A. Crow & Elizabeth A. Albright & Todd Ely & Elizabeth Koebele & Lydia Lawhon, 2018. "Do Disasters Lead to Learning? Financial Policy Change in Local Government," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 35(4), pages 564-589, July.
    13. David M. Konisky, 2009. "Inequities in enforcement? Environmental justice and government performance," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 102-121.
    14. Whitney Afonso, 2013. "Coping With the Great Recession: Theory and Practice for County Governments," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(11), pages 768-779.
    15. Robert V. Bartlett, 1993. "Integrated Impact Assessment as Environmental Policy: The New Zealand Experiment," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 12(3‐4), pages 162-177, September.
    16. Denny, Matthew J. & Spirling, Arthur, 2018. "Text Preprocessing For Unsupervised Learning: Why It Matters, When It Misleads, And What To Do About It," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 168-189, April.
    17. Lakshmanan, T.R., 2011. "The broader economic consequences of transport infrastructure investments," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12.
    18. Hilmers, A. & Hilmers, D.C. & Dave, J., 2012. "Neighborhood disparities in access to healthy foods and their effects on environmental justice," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(9), pages 1644-1654.
    19. John Randolph & Michael Bauer, 1999. "Improving Environmental Decision‐Making Through Collaborative Methods," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 16(3‐4), pages 168-191, September.
    20. Jonathan Craft & Michael Howlett & Mark Crawford & Kathleen McNutt, 2013. "Assessing Policy Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation: Governance Arrangements, Resource Deployments, and Analytical Skills in C anadian Infrastructure Policy Making," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 30(1), pages 42-65, January.
    21. Audrey M. Armour, 1993. "Risk Assessment in Environmental Policymaking," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 12(3‐4), pages 178-196, September.
    22. Léa Tardieu & Sébastien Roussel & John Thompson & Dorothée Labarraque & Jean-Michel Salles, 2015. "Combining direct and indirect impacts to assess ecosystem service loss due to infrastructure construction," Post-Print hal-01945826, HAL.
    23. Baldwin, Robert & Cave, Martin & Lodge, Martin (ed.), 2010. "The Oxford Handbook of Regulation," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199560219.
    24. Charles Davis, 2016. "BLM, the Administrative Presidency, and Policy Shifts: Policy Tools Affecting Oil and Gas Operations," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 33(5), pages 492-505, September.
    25. Sarah Pralle & Jessica Boscarino, 2011. "Framing Trade‐offs: The Politics of Nuclear Power and Wind Energy in the Age of Global Climate Change," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 28(4), pages 323-346, July.
    26. Thomas C. Beierle, 1999. "Using Social Goals To Evaluate Public Participation In Environmental Decisions," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 16(3‐4), pages 75-103, September.
    27. Jonathan Rosenberg, 2017. "More than a Question of Agency: Privatized Project Implementation, Accountabilities, and Global Environmental Governance," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 34(1), pages 10-30, January.
    28. Michael E. Kraft, 1982. "The Use Of Risk Analysis In Federal Regulatory Agencies: An Exploration1," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 1(4), pages 666-675, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hileman, Jacob D. & Angst, Mario & Scott, Tyler A. & Sundström, Emma, 2021. "Recycled text and risk communication in natural gas pipeline environmental impact assessments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Yuanzhe & Xi, Tianyang & Zhou, Li-An, 2024. "Drinking water facilities and inclusive development: Evidence from Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. Walter, Alexander I. & Helgenberger, Sebastian & Wiek, Arnim & Scholz, Roland W., 2007. "Measuring societal effects of transdisciplinary research projects: Design and application of an evaluation method," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 325-338, November.
    3. He, Guojun & Xie, Yang & Zhang, Bing, 2020. "Expressways, GDP, and the environment: The case of China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    4. Duygu Şahan & Okan Tuna, 2021. "Policy Implications on Transport Infrastructure–Trade Dynamics: Case of Turkey," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Zhang, Xun & Zuo, Congming, 2024. "Income inequality effect of public utility infrastructure: Evidence from rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    6. Chen Shen, 2023. "The Impact of Infrastructure Development on China–ASEAN Trade-Evidence from ASEAN," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-11, February.
    7. Pogonyi, Csaba G. & Graham, Daniel J. & Carbo, Jose M., 2021. "Metros, agglomeration and displacement. Evidence from London," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Diane Coyle & Marianne Sensier, 2020. "The imperial treasury: appraisal methodology and regional economic performance in the UK," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 283-295, March.
    9. Schreiner, Lena & Madlener, Reinhard, 2022. "Investing in power grid infrastructure as a flexibility option: A DSGE assessment for Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Batory Agnes & Svensson Sara, 2019. "The fuzzy concept of collaborative governance: A systematic review of the state of the art," Central European Journal of Public Policy, Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 28-39, December.
    11. Sékou Samadoulougou & Laurence Letarte & Alexandre Lebel, 2022. "Association between Neighbourhood Deprivation Trajectories and Self-Perceived Health: Analysis of a Linked Survey and Health Administrative Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Anmol Soni & Justina Jose & Gordon A. Kingsley, 2023. "When cities take control: Explaining the diversity of complex local climate actions," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(6), pages 1026-1057, November.
    13. Bono, Pierre-Henri & David, Quentin & Desbordes, Rodolphe & Py, Loriane, 2022. "Metro infrastructure and metropolitan attractiveness," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Elena Stupnikova & Tatyana Sukhadolets, 2019. "Construction Sector Role in Gross Fixed Capital Formation: Empirical Data from Russia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-16, May.
    15. Minhua Yang & Rui Yao & Linkun Ma & Ang Yang, 2024. "Towards a Low-Carbon Target: How the High-Speed Rail and Its Expansion Affects Industrial Concentration and Macroeconomic Conditions: Evidence from Chinese Urban Agglomerations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Stephan Heblich & Stephen J Redding & Daniel M Sturm, 2020. "The Making of the Modern Metropolis: Evidence from London," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 2059-2133.
    17. Evgeny N. SMIRNOV & Sergey A. LUKYANOV, 2019. "Assessment of the transforming impact of global value chains on international trade," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 10(3), pages 36-46, July.
    18. Lou, Jiehong & Shen, Xingchi & Niemeier, Deb, 2020. "Are stay-at-home orders more difficult to follow for low-income groups?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Cho, Daegon & Hwang, Youngdeok & Park, Jongwon, 2018. "More buzz, more vibes: Impact of social media on concert distribution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 103-113.
    20. Kamal Hussain & Fazlur Rahman & Ihsan Ullah & Zahir Ahmad & Udo Schickhoff, 2022. "Assessing the Impacts of Population Growth and Roads on Forest Cover: A Temporal Approach to Reconstruct the Deforestation Process in District Kurram, Pakistan, since 1972," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:37:y:2020:i:5:p:605-633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipsonea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.