The genesis and evolution of the programmatic environmental statement

The concept of a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) has existed at least since the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ's) regulations first described major federal actions requiring preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS). Although not specifically prescribing PEISs, the CEQ describes two types of actions that typically are addressed by PEIS reviews. These are (a) federal actions in which proposals are sufficiently related to each other to be a single course of action and (b) broad federal actions such as new agency programs or regulations. The PEIS, like an EIS, is prepared so that a range of actions, alternatives, and impacts can be considered by a decision maker during the planning process before a policy, program, or project is implemented