July 23, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Defense (DoD) is publishing this semiannual agenda of regulatory documents, including those that are procurement- related, for public information and comments under Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review.'' This agenda incorporates the objective and criteria, when applicable, of the regulatory reform program under the executive order and other regulatory guidance. It contains DoD issuances initiated by DoD components that may have economic and environmental impact on State, local, or tribal interests under the criteria of Executive Order 12866. Although most DoD issuances listed in the agenda are of negligible public impact, their nature may be of public interest and, therefore, are published to provide notice of rulemaking and an opportunity for public participation in the internal DoD rulemaking process. Members of the public may submit comments on individual proposed and interim final rulemakings at www.regulations.gov during the comment period that follows publication in the Federal Register. This agenda updates the report published on January 8, 2013, and includes regulations expected to be issued and under review over the next 12 months. The next agenda is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2013. In addition to this agenda, DoD components also publish rulemaking notices pertaining to their specific statutory administration requirements as required. Starting with the fall 2007 edition, the Internet became the basic means for disseminating the Unified Agenda. The complete Unified Agenda will be available online at www.reginfo.gov, in a format that offers users the ability to obtain information from the agenda database. Because publication in the Federal Register is mandated for the regulatory flexibility agendas required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 602), the Department of Defense's printed agenda entries include only: (1) Rules that are in the Agency's regulatory flexibility agenda, in accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, because they are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities; and (2) Any rules that the Agency has identified for periodic review under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Printing of these entries is limited to fields that contain information required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act's agenda requirements. Additional information on these entries is in the Unified Agenda available online.

This agenda provides summary descriptions of significant and not significant regulations being developed in agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in conformance with Executive Orders (EO) 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and Review'' and 13563 ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.'' The agenda also describes regulations affecting small entities as required by section 602 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, Public Law 96-354. This agenda also identifies regulatory actions that are being reviewed in compliance with section 610(c) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. We invite public comment on those actions as well as any regulation consistent with Executive Order 13563. USDA has attempted to list all regulations and regulatory reviews pending at the time of publication except for minor and routine or repetitive actions, but some may have been inadvertently missed. There is no legal significance to the omission of an item from this listing. Also, the dates shown for the steps of each action are estimated and are not commitments to act on or by the date shown. USDA's complete regulatory agenda is available online at www.reginfo.gov. Because publication in the Federal Register is mandated for the regulatory flexibility agendas required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 602), USDA's printed agenda entries include only: (1) Rules that are likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities; and (2) Rules identified for periodic review under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

This Notice provides an opportunity to comment on EPA's draft analysis of the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of ethanol that is produced using barley as a feedstock. EPA's draft analysis indicates that ethanol produced from barley has an estimated lifecycle GHG emissions reduction of 47% as compared to baseline conventional fuel when the barley ethanol is produced at a dry mill facility that uses natural gas for all process energy, uses electricity from the grid, and dries up to 100% of distillers grains. Such barley ethanol would therefore meet the minimum 20% GHG emissions reduction threshold for conventional biofuels under the Clean Air Act Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. In addition, EPA analyzed two potential options for producing barley ethanol that would meet the 50% GHG emissions reduction threshold for advanced biofuels. Ethanol produced from dry- milling barley meet the advanced biofuels GHG reduction threshold if it is produced at a facility that uses no more than 30,700 Btu of natural gas for process energy, no more than 4,200 Btu of biomass from barley hulls or biogas from landfills, waste treatment plants, barley hull digesters, or waste digesters for process energy, and no more than 0.84 kWh of electricity from the grid for all electricity used at the renewable fuel production facility, calculated on a per gallon basis. Ethanol produced from dry-milling barley can also meet the advanced biofuel GHG reduction threshold if the production facility uses no more than 36,800 Btu of natural gas for process energy and also uses natural gas for on-site production of all electricity used at the facility other than up to 0.19 kWh of electricity from the grid, calculated on a per gallon basis.