[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 217 (Thursday, November 10, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68443-68445]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-22379]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-7994-8]


State Innovation Grant Program, Preliminary Notice on the 
Development of a Solicitation for Proposals for 2006 Awards

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Policy, 
Economics and Innovation (OPEI) is giving preliminary notice of its 
intention to solicit proposals for a 2006 grant program to support 
innovation by state environmental regulatory agencies--the ``State 
Innovation Grant Program.'' In addition, EPA is asking each State 
Environmental Regulatory Agency to designate a point of contact at the 
management level (in addition to the Commissioner or Cabinet Secretary

[[Page 68444]]

level) who will be the point of contact for further communication about 
the upcoming solicitation. If your point of contact from previous State 
Innovation Grant solicitations is to be your contact for this year's 
competition, there is no need to send that information again, as all 
previously designated points of contact will remain on our notification 
list for this year's competition. EPA anticipates publication of a 
Federal Register notice to announce the availability of the next 
solicitation approximately three weeks after publication of this 
announcement.

DATES: State Environmental Regulatory Agencies will have 14 days from 
the date of this pre-announcement notice in the Federal Register 
publication until November 25, 2005 to respond with point of contact 
information for the person within the State Environmental Regulatory 
Agency (in addition to Commissioner or Cabinet Secretaries) who will be 
designated to receive future notices about the State Innovation Grants. 
We will automatically transmit notice of availability of the 
solicitation to people in State agencies identified for previous 
solicitations.

ADDRESSES: Information should be sent to: State Innovation Grant 
Program; Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation; U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency (1807T); 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 
20460. Responses may also be sent by fax to (202) 566-2220, addressed 
to the ``State Innovation Grant Program,'' or by e-mail to: 
[email protected]. We encourage e-mail responses. If 
you have questions about responding to this notice, please contact EPA 
at this e-mail address or fax number, or you may call Sherri Walker at 
202-566-2186. For point of contact information, please provide: name, 
title, department and agency, street or Post Office address, city, 
State, zip code, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. EPA will 
acknowledge all responses it receives to this notice.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background: In April 2002, EPA issued its 
plan for future innovation efforts, published as Innovating for Better 
Environmental Results: A Strategy to Guide the Next Generation of 
Innovation at EPA (EPA 100-R-02-002; http://www.epa.gov/innovation/strategy/ innovation/
strategy/). The Agency's Innovation Strategy presents a framework for 
environmental innovation consisting of four major elements:
    (1) Strengthen EPA's innovation partnerships with States;
    (2) Focus on priority environmental issues:
    (3) Diversify environmental protection tools and approaches:
    (4) Foster a more ``innovation-friendly'' organizational culture 
and systems.
    This assistance program strengthens EPA's partnership with the 
States by supporting innovation compatible with the Innovation 
Strategy. EPA would like to help States build on previous experience 
and undertake strategic innovation projects that promote larger-scale 
models for ``next generation'' environmental protection and promise 
better environmental results. EPA is interested in funding projects 
that go beyond a single facility experiment to promote change that is 
``systems-oriented'' and provides better results from a program, 
process, or sector-wide innovation. EPA is particularly interested in 
innovation that promotes integrated (cross-media) environmental 
management with high potential for transfer to other States.
    In 2002, EPA initiated the State Innovation Grant Program with a 
competition that asked for State project proposals that would create 
innovation in environmental permitting programs related to one of the 
Innovation Strategy's four priority environmental issues: Reducing 
greenhouse gases, reducing smog, improving water quality, and ensuring 
the long-term integrity of the nations's water infrastructure. In 
addition, the solicitation encouraged projects that test incentives 
that motivate ``beyond-compliance'' environmental performance, or move 
whole sectors toward improved environmental performance through models 
such as Environmental Results Programs, Environmental Management 
Systems and the National Environmental Performance Track Program. 
Fifteen total awards to States have been made from the three prior 
competitions. Awards from the 2002 solicitation competition totaled 
$618,000. Awards from the 2003-2004 competition were approximately $1.6 
million dollars. EPA is currently completing awards to seven States 
selected in the 2005 competition. Of those projects that have been 
awarded, including those with pending awards: 11 are for development of 
Environmental Results Programs, 7 relate to Environmental Management 
Systems and permitting, 2 are to enhance Performance-Based 
Environmental Leadership programs, 2 are for Watershed-based 
permitting, and 1 is Information Technology. For more information on 
last year's solicitation, the proposals received, and the award 
decisions, please see the Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants.
    Proposed General Topic Areas for Solicitation: Because the Agency 
has limited funding for the Program, NCEI wants to maximize the 
strategic impact of these projects. Our intention, therefore is to 
retain ``innovation in permitting'' as the general subject area of the 
upcoming solicitation with special attention toward the three specific 
topics under that theme from last year: (1) Projects that support the 
development of state Environmental Results Programs (ERP); (2) projects 
which explore the relationship between Environmental Management Systems 
(EMS) and permitting (see EPA's Strategy for Determining the Role of 
EMS in Regulatory Programs at http://www.epa.gov/ems or http://www.epa.gov/ems/docs/EMS_and_the_Reg_Structure_41204F.pdf); (3) 
projects that support state performance-based programs or state support 
for implementation of Performance Track particularly with regard to 
development and implementation of incentives. EPA's focus on a small 
number of topics within this general subject area effectively 
concentrates the limited resources available for greater strategic 
impact. Project selections and awards will be subject to funding 
availability for each topic area. In addition, EPA may contemplate a 
very limited number of projects otherwise related to the theme of 
permitting, in particular as they may address EPA Regional and State 
environmental permitting priorities.
    As in previous rounds of this competition, the 2006 State 
Innovation Grant Program competition will seek to strengthen EPA's 
innovation partnership with States by providing a source of funding to 
facilitate State efforts to test new models for ``next generation'' 
environmental protection that will provide better environmental 
results, consistent with the goals of EPA's Innovation Strategy.
    This grant program emphasizes interest in funding projects that go 
beyond a single facility experiment to promote change that is 
``systems-oriented'' and provides better results from a program, 
process, or sector-wide innovation. Another key goal for this grant 
program is practical transferability of innovation that enables or 
supports other States to motivate their designated or geographical 
priority facility(ies) of choice to provide ``beyond compliance'' 
environmental performance, or to move whole sectors toward improved 
environmental performance.


[[Page 68445]]


    Note: These grants will not be applied to the development or 
demonstration of new environmental technologies, nor will NCEI fund 
projects that propose development or upgrading of information 
technology systems for anything other than a very minor component of 
the project. Projects will be much less likely to be funded through 
the State Innovation Grant Program if agency resources are already 
available through another agency program.

    Competition Limited to the State Environmental Regulatory Agency: 
The competition will be limited to the principal Environmental 
Regulatory Agency within each State, although these agencies are 
encouraged to partner with other agencies within the State that have 
environmental mandates (e.g., natural resources management, 
transportation, public health, energy). EPA will accept only one 
proposal from an individual State and it must be submitted by the 
principal Environmental Regulatory Agency from that State. States are 
also encouraged to partner with other States and Tribes to address 
cross-boundary issues, and to create networks for peer-mentoring. A 
multi-state or State-Tribal proposal will be accepted in addition to an 
individual State proposal, but a State may appear in no more than one 
multi-State or State-Tribal proposal in addition to its individual 
proposal. EPA regrets that because of the limitations in available 
funding it is not yet able to open this competition to Native American 
Tribal environmental agencies but we strongly encourage Tribal agencies 
to join with adjacent States in project proposals.
    Request for Designation of a Primary Point of Contact: EPA asks 
that each State Environmental Regulatory Agency designate as a primary 
point-of-contact, a manager who we will add to the EPA notification 
list for further announcements about the State Innovation Grant 
Program. If your point of contact from previous State Innovation Grant 
solicitations is to be your contact for this year's competition, there 
is no need to send that information again, as all previously designated 
points of contact will remain on our notification list for this year's 
competition. We are asking that this name be submitted with the 
approval of the highest levels of management within an Agency 
(Secretary, Commissioner, or their deputies) within 14 days after 
publication of this notice in the Federal Register November 25, 2005. 
Please submit this information to EPA by mail, fax or e-mail in the 
following manner.
    By mail to: State Innovation Grant Program, Office of Policy, 
Economics and Innovation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1807T), 
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460.
    By fax to: ``State Innovation Grant Program'', 202-566-2220.
    By e-mail to: [email protected].
    We encourage e-mail responses. If you have questions about 
responding to this notice, please contact EPA at this e-mail address or 
fax number, or you may call Sherri Walker at 202-566-2186. For point of 
contact information, please provide: name, title, department and 
agency, street or Post Office address, city, State, zip code, 
telephone, fax, and e-mail address. EPA will acknowledge all responses 
it receives to this notice.
    Opportunity for Dialogue: Between now and the initiation of the 
competition with the release of the solicitation, States are encouraged 
to discuss potential projects with their EPA Regional contact to 
ascertain whether the scope of a potential project is suitable for 
funding under this program. Unlike last year, we will not be hosting a 
series of pre-competition workshops for all States and Regions. 
Questions that come to us during this period, as well as our responses, 
along with helpful resource materials will be posted on the State 
Innovation Grant Web site at http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants. 
The Regional contacts and the EPA HQ National Center for Environmental 
Innovation are as follows:
Regional Contacts

George Frantz
U.S. EPA Region I
1 Congress Street, Suite 1100
Boston, MA 02114-2023
(617) 918-1883
[email protected]
States: ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI

Grace Smith
U.S. EPA Region 2
290 Broadway, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10007-1866
(212) 637-3589
[email protected]
States & Territories: NY, NJ, PR, VI

Marie Holman
U.S. EPA Region 3
1650 Arch Street (3EA40)
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 814-5463
[email protected]
States: DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV

Melissa Heath
U.S. EPA Region 4
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 562-8381
[email protected]
States: AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN

Marilou Martin
U.S. EPA Region 5, B-19J
77 West Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604-3507
(312) 353-9660
[email protected]
States: MN, WI, MI, IL, IN, OH

David Bond
U.S. EPA Region 6
Fountain Place, Suite 1200
1445 Ross Avenue
Dallas, TX 75202-2733
(214) 665-6431
[email protected]
States: AR, LA, NM, OK, TX

Chrissy Wolfersberger
U.S. EPA Region 7
901 N. 5th Street
Kansas City, KS 66101
(913) 551-7864
[email protected]
States: KS, MO, NE, IA

Whitney Trulove-Cranor
U.S. EPA Region 8 (8P-SA)
999 18th Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80202-2466
(303) 312-6099
[email protected]
States: CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY

Loretta Barsamian
U.S. EPA Region 9
75 Hawthorne Street (SPE-1)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 947-4268
[email protected]
States & Territories: CA, NV, AZ, HI, AS, GU

Bill Glasser
U.S. EPA Region 10
1200 Sixth Avenue (ENF-T)
Seattle, WA 09101
206-553-7215
[email protected]
States: AK, ID, OR, WA

Headquarters Office:

Sherri Walker
State Innovation Grants Program
National Center for Environmental Innovation
Office of the Administrator
U.S. EPA (MC 1807T)
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
Washington, DC 20460

(202) 566-2186
(202) 566-2220 fax
[email protected].

For courier delivery only:
Sherri Walker
U.S. EPA
EPA West Building, room 4214D 1301 Constitution Ave., NW.
Washington, DC 20005

    Dated: November 2, 2005.
Elizabeth Shaw,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy Innovation.
[FR Doc. 05-22379 Filed 11-9-05; 8:45 am]
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