The California Desert Conservation Area and the Administrative State

Keith Woodhouse, Northwestern University

The California Desert Conservation Area and the Administrative State An environmental impact statement is a predictive document that considers risks in order to weigh the relative advantages of one path or another. An EIS has to account for not only different values but also different understandings of “environmental impact.” By requiring public notice and public hearings, the EIS process also serves to check the centralization of authority in the administrative state. The EIS process is a non-emergency brake, a deliberate drag on the momentum of material development and the routinization of bureaucratic processes. This paper will consider the evolution of the EIS process by tracing the history of the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA), roughly 25 million acres in the state’s southeast. Since the 1970s the Bureau of Land Management has overseen the CDCA and has attempted to manage ongoing controversy over the desert’s use. Critical interest groups have included conservationists, off-road vehicle users, Native Americans, ranchers, and energy companies. CDCA management involved a revision process that often triggered several EISs a year, addressing everything from motorcycle races to desert tortoises to energy installations. The constant process of seeking input from stakeholders and attempting to reconcile their differences made the CDCA a laboratory for public participation in administrative processes, for environmental risk management, and for long-term approaches to environmental policy and change.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 98. Expertise I: The Politics Of Environmental Knowledge