The opinion of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Calvert Cliffs Coordinating Committee, Inc. v. Atomic Energy Comm'n, 1 ELR 20346 (D.C. Cir. July 23, 1971), puts the AEC—and implicitly all other federal agencies—on notice that NEPA will in fact require major changes in the spirit and the detail of administrative decisionmaking so that environmental values are fully protected. In a sweeping rejection of the adequacy of the AEC's compliance with NEPA's requirements, the court held that the AEC had no choice but strict adherence to each procedural step mandated by the Act. Of equal significance to environmental attorneys, the court provided the context for its decision by spelling out the underlying policy of NEPA in the first thorough judicial interpretation of NEPA by a court of appeals since Zabel v. Tabb, 1 ELR 20023. The court found that the Act required agencies (1) to give full consideration to environmental values, using all practicable means and measures to protect them, (2) to employ a "finely tuned and 'systematic' balancing analysis" in resolving conflict between environmental, social, economic, aesthetic and other values, (3) to implement to the fullest possible extent the requirements of §102(2)(c) that call for the preparation of a detailed, one-sided analysis of the environmental impact of proposed federal legislation or activity, and (4) to set out all possible alternative approaches to a particular project which will alter its environmental impact and its cost-benefit balance. Finally, in an interesting statutory construction of the Act, the court found that the "Muskie-Jackson Compromise" had not been enacted in §104.