Department of Energy June 21, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Northern New Mexico. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.

In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C., App. 2, the U.S. Department of Energy is soliciting nominations for candidates to fill vacancies on the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee (Technical Advisory Committee).

DOE announces its intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ) NEPA regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508), and DOE's NEPA implementing procedures (10 CFR part 1021), to analyze the reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts, including the site-specific impacts, of alternatives for the management of DOE's Uranium Leasing Program (ULP), under which DOE administers tracts of land for the exploration, development, and extraction of uranium and vanadium ores. DOE's ULP includes tracts of land located in Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel counties in western Colorado that cover a cumulative acreage of approximately 25,000 acres. In July 2007, DOE issued a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the ULP (DOE/ EA-1535) (available at https://www.lm.doe.gov/land/sites/uranium_ leasing/uranium_leasing.htm), in which it examined three alternatives for the management of the ULP for the next ten years. In that same month, DOE issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) (available at https://nepa.energy.gov/documents/EA-1535FONSI.pdf), in which DOE announced its decision to proceed with the preferred ``Expanded Program Alternative'' that was examined in its July 2007 PEA, and also determined that the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was not required. DOE has determined that, in light of the site-specific information that DOE has gathered as a result of the site-specific agency actions proposed and approved pursuant to the July 2007 PEA/FONSI, it is now appropriate for DOE to prepare a PEIS in order to analyze the reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts, including the site- specific impacts, of a range of alternatives for the management of the ULP for the remainder of the ten-year period that was covered by the July 2007 PEA. DOE is issuing this Notice of Intent (NOI) to inform interested parties of this PEIS and to invite public comments on its proposed scope, including the preliminary range of alternatives and environmental issues to be considered. DOE plans to invite Federal, state, and local governmental agencies with jurisdiction by law or special expertise to participate as cooperating agencies in preparing the PEIS.