A new direction in litigation concerning environmental impact statements required under §102(2)(C) of the National environmental Policy Act was recently initiated by a group of scientists seeking to compel the Atomic Energy Commission to file such a statement assessing alternatives for an entire long-range legislative program, instead of just for routine action taken under the agency's existing statutory authority. Scientists' Institute for Public Information v. AEC, 1 ELR Dig. 182 (D.D.C., filed May 25, 1971). In its complaint, the Scientists' Institute for Public Information (SIPI) asks only that the necessary environmental impact statement be filed for the development program for liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBR). Present AEC guidelines setting out procedures for the filing of impact statements, however, deal solely with the construction and licensing of individual reactor projects. Guidelines for the preparation of impact statements for long-range comprehensive programs requiring extensive federal legislation and large appropriations have not been written.

The AEC program would develop liquid metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBR) for commercial use through a two-prong emphasis on technological development and demonstration plants, so that by the year 2000 one-quarter of the electrical energy in the United States will be produced by LMFBR power plants. The AEC requested $100 million, primarily for LMFBR technological development, for fiscal year 1972 without filing a §102 environmental impact statement. President Nixon's Energy Resources message to Congress on June 4, 1971, set the LMFBR program as a high-priority national goal and requested an additional $27 million for fiscal year 1972 for technological development. He also requested $50 million for a demonstration plant that would prove the commercial feasibility of LMFBR power plants by 1980, but he side-stepped the issue brought on by SIPI v. AEC by promising environmental impact studies for the demonstration plant only. Energy Resources, President's Message to Congress, June 4, 1971.