Department of the Interior August 4, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On November 18, 2010, the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) issued a Notice of Inquiry and Notice of Consultation advising the public that the NIGC was conducting a comprehensive review of its regulations and requesting public comment on the process for conducting the regulatory review. On April 4, 2011, after holding eight consultations and reviewing all comments, NIGC published a Notice of Regulatory Review Schedule setting out a consultation schedule and process for review. The purpose of this document is to cancel four scheduled tribal consultations.

In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Needles Field Office, Needles, California, intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which may include potential land use plan amendments to the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) Plan, as amended, and the Las Vegas Resource Management Plan (RMP), related to First Solar Development, Inc.'s (First Solar) right-of-way (ROW) application for the Stateline Solar Farm (Stateline), a 300- Megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) Solar electricity generation project. By this notice, the BLM is: (1) Announcing the beginning of the scoping process to solicit public comments and identify issues related to the EIS; and (2) Segregating the public lands located within the Stateline ROW application area from operation of the public land laws including the Mining Law, but not the Mineral Leasing or Material Sales Acts, for a period of 2 years from the date of publication of this notice.

The Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) was directed by the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 to establish the Dominguez- Escalante National Conservation Area (D-E NCA) Advisory Council (Council). The 10-member Council was formed in December 2010 to provide recommendations to the Secretary through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) during the development of a resource management plan (RMP) for the D-E NCA. Since this council was formed, one council member representing Delta County and one council member representing natural values have expressed interest in resigning from the council due to time conflicts. As a result, the Secretary is soliciting applications to replace the current occupants of these two seats.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce a 90-day finding on a petition to list six sand dune beetles as endangered or threatened and to designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). Based on our review, we find that the petition does not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing two of the six species [Hardy's aegialian scarab (Aegialia hardyi) and Sand Mountain serican scarab (Serica psammobunus)] may be warranted. However, we find that the petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing may be warranted for four of the six species [Crescent Dunes aegialian scarab (A. crescenta), Crescent Dunes serican scarab (S. ammomenisco), large aegialian scarab (A. magnifica), and Giuliani's dune scarab (Pseudocotalpa giuliani)]. Therefore, with the publication of this notice, we are initiating a review of the status of these species to determine if listing these four species is warranted. To ensure that the status reviews are comprehensive, we are requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding these four species. Based on the status reviews, we will issue 12-month findings on these four species, which will address whether the petitioned actions are warranted, as provided in the Act.