[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 219 (Wednesday, November 15, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78358-78359]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-25126]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OA-2013-0320; FRL-11531-01-OA]
Public Comment on the Revised Technical Guidance for Assessing
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of public comment period.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 60-
day public comment period on the draft revision of the Technical
Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis (EJ
Technical Guidance). The EJ Technical Guidance was first published in
2016. The EPA is updating it to reflect the state of the science; new
peer-reviewed agency guidance; and new terminology, priorities, and
direction, including Executive Order 14096. The purpose of this
guidance is to outline analytic expectations and discuss technical
approaches and methods that can be used by agency analysts to evaluate
EJ concerns for regulatory actions. This technical guidance builds on
the EPA's experience in evaluating environmental
[[Page 78359]]
justice concerns within the rulemaking analytic process and underscores
the EPA's ongoing commitment to ensuring the just treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development,
implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and
policies.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 15, 2024.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OA-2013-0320, by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/
(our preferred method). Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Docket
Center, Office of Policy, Docket, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460.
Hand Delivery or Courier: EPA Docket Center, WJC West
Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004.
The Docket Center's hours of operations are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.,
Monday-Friday (except Federal Holidays).
Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket ID
No. for this rulemaking. Comments received may be posted without change
to https://www.regulations.gov/, including any personal information
provided. For detailed instructions on sending comments and additional
information on the rulemaking process, see the ``Public Participation''
heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Ann Wolverton, National Center for
Environmental Economics, Office of Policy (Mail Code 1809A),
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: 202-566-2278; email address:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Public Participation.
A. Informational Webinars
The EPA will host two informational webinars on the draft revised
technical guidance.
Wednesday, December 6, 2:30-4:00 p.m. EST: To join the
live event, see the weblink at: https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/epa-draft-revision-technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice.
To join by phone: +1 202-991-0477, Conference ID: 197 258 337#.
Tuesday, December 12, 3:00-4:30 p.m. EST: To join the live
event, see the weblink at: https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/epa-draft-revision-technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice.
To join by phone: +1 202-991-0477, Conference ID: 398 827 52#.
B. Written Comments
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OA-2013-
0320, at https://www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), or the
other methods identified in the ADDRESSES section. Once submitted,
comments cannot be edited or removed from the docket. The EPA may
publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit to
EPA's docket at https://www.regulations.gov any information you
consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI), Proprietary
Business Information (PBI), or other information whose disclosure is
restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must
be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered
the official comment and should include discussion of all points you
wish to make. The EPA will generally not consider comments or comment
contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the web,
cloud, or other file sharing system). Please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets for additional submission methods; the
full EPA public comment policy; information about CBI, PBI, or
multimedia submissions; and general guidance on making effective
comments.
II. General Information
A. Where can I find the document?
The draft revision of the Technical Guidance for Assessing
Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis is available at https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/epa-draft-revision-technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice.
B. What is the purpose of the document?
The Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in
Regulatory Analysis (Guidance) addresses the issue of how to
analytically consider environmental justice in regulatory analyses. It
directs EPA analysts to assess whether environmental justice concerns
exist prior to the rulemaking and whether such concerns are likely to
be exacerbated or mitigated for each regulatory option under
consideration. The technical guidance makes recommendations designed to
ensure greater consistency across EPA assessments of EJ concerns for
regulatory actions. The recommendations encourage analysts to conduct
the highest quality analysis feasible, recognizing that data
limitations, time and resource constraints, and analytic challenges
will vary by media and circumstance. They are not designed to be
prescriptive and do not mandate the use of a specific approach. Updates
to the technical guidance reflect advancements in the state of the
science; other new peer-reviewed Agency guidance documents; and new
priorities and direction related to the conduct of environmental
justice analysis, including Executive Order 14096. The technical
guidance builds on the EPA's experience in evaluating environmental
justice as part of the rulemaking analytic process and underscores the
EPA's ongoing commitment to ensuring the just treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people with respect to the development,
implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and
policies. The technical guidance will enable the EPA to conduct better
analysis of regulations which will ultimately enable the EPA to make
better decisions.
C. How will my comments be used?
Public comment received on the draft revision of the Technical
Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis
will be reviewed and considered for incorporation into or modification
of text in the final revised draft of the Guidance. The final draft
Guidance will then undergo internal EPA review and revision, and then
be finalized for publication following peer review by the EPA's Science
Advisory Board. An EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) review of this
document will be announced in December 2023. Information on the SAB
review can be found here: https://sab.epa.gov/ords/sab/r/sab_apex/sab/home.
Victoria Arroyo,
Associate Administrator, Office of Policy.
[FR Doc. 2023-25126 Filed 11-14-23; 8:45 am]
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