Poor Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) practice leads to poorly planned projects, and ultimately poor environmental protection. Written by recognized NEPA authority Charles H. Eccleston, The EIS Book: Managing and Preparing Environmental Impact Statements supplies focused direction on preparing an EIS, highlighting best professional practices (BBP) and lessons learned from case law that provide valuable direction for preparing legally defensible documents. The book is not about preparing bigger or more complicated EISs—but better ones. Beginning with fundamental topics and advancing into successively more advanced subjects, Eccleston describes EIS preparation as a comprehensive framework for planning future actions, rather than merely a document preparation procedure. He supplies direction for preparing defensible analyses that facilitate well-planned projects and improved decision-making. Discusses EIS document requirements including the Council of Environmental Quality’s NEPA regulations and related guidelines, EPA guidance and requirements, presidential executive orders, and case law Covers how to perform a legally sufficient cumulative impact assessment and how to evaluate greenhouse emissions and climate change Details a step-by-step approach for navigating the entire EIS process that includes all pertinent process requirements from issuing the notice of intent, through public scoping, to issuing the final record of decision (ROD) Includes analytical requirements for preparing the EIS analysis and guidance for performing various types of analyses Provides tools, techniques, and best professional practices for preparing the EIS and performing the analysis Presents a case study that reinforces key EIS regulatory requirements, and integrates lessons learned from this case study with appropriate regulatory requirements The book gives readers a firm grasp of the process for preparing an EIS, including all key regulatory requirements that a legally sufficient EIS document must satisfy. No other book synthesizes all such requirements and guidance into a single source for easy and rapid access.

Author Diori Kreske explains all concepts needed to understand the EIS process and presents them first at an introductory level and later in greater detail. In the first half of the book she introduces readers to the EIS process, defines the roles and responsibilities of major participants, and discusses the process in relation to federal and state requirements and court decisions. Then Kreske concentrates on the nuts and bolts of preparing and managing an EIS. She describes how to build an EIS team, establish the statement's framework, manage the preparation process, determine when and how to involve the public, and write and review EISs.

The book guides the environmental engineer or scientist through the process using t-ools from value engineering theory, total quality management, and systems planning.