Department of the Interior October 9, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

BOEM has recognized the need to develop a comprehensive program to assist in identifying, prioritizing, and managing the risks associated with industry activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). BOEM intends to design and implement a more robust and comprehensive risk management, financial assurance and loss prevention program to address the complex issues and cost differences associated with offshore operations. As part of its overall effort to establish this program and associated changes to regulations, BOEM is seeking stakeholder comments regarding various risk management and monitoring activities pertaining to financial risks to taxpayers that may result from activities on the OCS. BOEM currently requires lessees to provide performance bonds and/or one of various alternative forms of financial assurance to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of leases, Rights-of-Use and Easements and Pipeline Rights-of-Way. BOEM is seeking comments on who is best suited to mitigate risks and whether other forms of financial assurance should be used, as well as whether, or to what extent, the current forms of financial assurance are adequate and appropriate. BOEM has received comments to its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) indicating that the number of issues being addressed and the complexity of the topics being considered would justify a longer comment period. Various groups have also requested that additional time be provided to review and analyze the ANPR. For these reasons, BOEM has agreed to extend the comment period by an additional 30 days. The new comment period will elapse 90 days from August 19, 2014, the date of the original of publication of the ANPR.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is proposing to amend its regulations governing Secretarial elections and procedures for tribal members to petition for Secretarial elections. This proposed rule reflects changes in the law and the requirement that regulations be written in plain language.

In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), as amended, and the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act of 1988 (creating the San Pedro National Conservation Area), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tucson Field Office, Tucson, Arizona, intends to prepare a Travel Management Plan (TMP) concurrent with the preparation of a Resource Management Plan (RMP) and associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA). This notice announces the beginning of the scoping process to solicit public comments and identify issues for the TMP.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, propose to list Trichomanes punctatum ssp. floridanum (Florida bristle fern), a plant subspecies from Miami-Dade and Sumter Counties in Florida, as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). If we finalize this rule as proposed, it would extend the Act's protections to this plant and add this plant to the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants.