In November 2005, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) jointly signed a memorandum directing Federal
agencies to seek to increase the effective use of environmental conflict
resolution (ECR) and collaborative problem solving (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/joint-statement.html).
The Department of Energy defines ECR as an ADR process which may include the
use of a neutral third party, such as a mediator or facilitator to assist in
the prevention or resolution of environmental disputes. ECR may also
include the use of other collaborative processes (that may not necessarily use
a neutral third party) to prevent or resolve environmental disputes. The
memorandum also directs Federal agencies to report annually on their progress
in implementing the memorandum. DOE submitted its first annual ECR
report to CEQ/OMB in December 2006. DOE
ECR Report 2006 (PDF) The Office of Conflict Prevention
and Resolution is available to assist DOE Programs in determining the
appropriate ECR process to use in resolving or preventing an environmental
dispute.
Annual DOE ECR reports are as follows:
