(a) It is the DON policy regarding NEPA, consistent with its mission and regulations and the environmental laws and regulations of the United States, to:

(1) Initiate the NEPA processes at the earliest possible time to be an effective decision making tool in the course of identifying a proposed action.

(2) Develop and carefully consider a reasonable range of alternatives for achieving the purpose(s) of proposed actions.

(3) Assign responsibility for preparation of action specific environmental analysis under NEPA to the action proponent. The action proponent should understand the plans, analyses, and environmental documents related to that action.

(b) NEPA is intended to ensure that environmental issues are fully considered and incorporated into the Federal decision making process. Consequently, actions for which the DON has no decision-making authority and no discretion in implementing the action, such as those carried out under a non discretionary mandate from Congress (e.g., congressional direction to transfer Federal property to a particular entity for a particular purpose that leaves DON no discretion in how the transfer will be implemented) or as an operation of law (e.g., reversionary interests in land recorded at the time the property was obtained and that provide no discretion in whether to trigger the reversion or how the reversion will be implemented), require no analysis or documentation under NEPA or its implementing regulations.