The battle over New York City’s landmark congestion price plan is the latest example. After more than 50 years of efforts to implement a toll program that would slash greenhouse emissions from cars and reduce congestion in lower Manhattan, the plan cleared a milestone in May, when the federal government signed off on the release of an environmental assessment. Then, last month, New Jersey sued to block the plan, citing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 .
“But by the 1960s, you see a backlash both from emerging environmental movements and from communities that feel agencies are riding roughshod over them,” said Paul Sabin, who teaches US environmental history at Yale University and is the author of “Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism.” “NEPA emerged at a time where people thought that government was doing too much,” Sabin said. “It reflected an idea that we could slow change.