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Environmental Evaluation of Development Proposals Case Study: the Adani Project ~ A Need for Review?

3. Environmental Impact Statements & Scientific Uncertainty: A Decision-Making Aid or the Decision End Point?
TAGS: Adani; coal mine; evaluation; EIS; environmental impact audit; US 40 C.F.R. Section 1502.22; US National Environmental Policy Act 1969; incomplete information; scientific uncertainty; scientific roundtable 
1.   Any review and reform of the environmental evaluation and approval process of major development projects, like the Adani project, needs to be directed at a primary source of the problems created by scientific uncertainty in the EIS.
2.   Problems that not only caused conflict, litigation and inordinate delays for environmental evaluation and approval – but also confounded the integrity of the decision-making process.
3.   It would be prudent for Government to be aware of the US experience: That “no other strategy offers a more telling acknowledgement of the legitimacy of local concerns” than where those who have to live with a decision that has potential adverse environmental impacts, know they can trust the monitoring and management plans.

 Chapter 6 (Environmental Impact Assessment) of the author’s book  Finding Solutions for Environmental Conflicts: Power and Negotiation a comparative review  of the legal and scientific approaches to EIA in Australia, the UK and the USA; and links this knowledge to achieving outcomes based on conflict resolution principles.

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