{"id":3163,"date":"2021-03-30T09:21:47","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T13:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/?p=3163"},"modified":"2021-03-30T09:25:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T13:25:19","slug":"is-outer-space-a-human-environment-under-nepa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/30\/is-outer-space-a-human-environment-under-nepa\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Outer Space a Human Environment under NEPA?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The FAA assesses its major federal actions such as issuing a launch license under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).\u00a0 You may have heard of Environmental Impact Statements.\u00a0 NEPA requires agencies to prepare them for major federal actions like issuing a license.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1422\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/03\/law-in-science-fiction\/480px-apollo_15_flag_rover_lm_irwin\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?fit=480%2C480&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"480,480\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"480px-Apollo_15_flag,_rover,_LM,_Irwin\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?fit=480%2C480&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-1422 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?resize=248%2C248&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/groundbasedspacematters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/480px-Apollo_15_flag_rover_LM_Irwin.jpg?w=480&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/>NEPA requires the FAA to <span class=\"chapeau\">include in every recommendation or report on a license &#8220;significantly affecting the quality of the human environment,&#8221; a detailed statement on <\/span>the environmental impact of the proposed action, any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided under the proposal, alternatives to the proposed action, the relationship between local short-term uses of man\u2019s environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity, and any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed action. 42 USC 4332(C).<\/p>\n<p>My question is whether the human environment includes outer space?<\/p>\n<p>Generally, when interpreting a law, the presence of a limiting adjective such as &#8220;human&#8221; means that there is some non-human environment to which NEPA does not apply.\u00a0 Might outer space be that non-human environment? There&#8217;s got to be a non-human environment somewhere for it to be necessary to characterize the environment subject to NEPA as human, and, so far, it&#8217;s not on Earth.<\/p>\n<div class=\"continuation indent1 firstIndent0\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FAA assesses its major federal actions such as issuing a launch license under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).\u00a0&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is Outer Space a Human Environment under NEPA? 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