Department of Transportation June 17, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

These special conditions are issued for the Boeing Model 717- 200 series airplanes. These airplanes will have a novel or unusual design feature associated with seats with inflatable lapbelts. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

This notice contains a summary of a petition seeking relief from specified requirements of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of the FAA's regulatory activities. Neither publication of this notice nor the inclusion or omission of information in the summary is intended to affect the legal status of the petition or its final disposition.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) are planning to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Sound Transit's proposed Federal Way Transit Extension (FWTE) project. The FWTE project would allow Sound Transit to improve public transit service between the cities of SeaTac and Federal Way in King County, Washington. The FWTE project would also respond to a growing number of transportation and community needs identified in the agency's regional transit system plan, Sound Transit 2 (ST2). The EIS will be prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Washington's State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). This Notice of Intent initiates formal scoping for the EIS, invites interested parties to participate in the EIS process, provides information about the purpose and need for the proposed transit project, includes the general set of alternatives being considered for evaluation in the EIS, and identifies potential environmental effects to be considered. This notice invites public comments on the scope of the EIS and announces the public scoping meetings to receive comments. Alternatives being considered for evaluation include a No-Build alternative and various build alternatives to develop light rail in the FWTE corridor. The light rail alternatives were developed through an early scoping process, and an alternatives analysis study. Early scoping notification for the alternatives analysis phase was announced in the Federal Register on October 16, 2012. Results of the early scoping process, the alternatives analysis findings, and other background technical reports are available on the project Web site.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) is incorporated in our regulations, approved by the Federal Highway Administration, and recognized as the national standard for traffic control devices used on all streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public travel. Consistent with Executive Order 13563, and in particular its emphasis on burden-reduction and on retrospective analysis of existing rules, a Request for Comments was published on January 11, 2013, to solicit input on potential formats for restructuring the MUTCD into two documents, one that would be subject to rulemaking and one that would contain supplemental information that is not subject to rulemaking. One hundred and sixty-nine unique letters were received and this document provides a summary of the input from these letters. Given the lack of support from the MUTCD user community, the FHWA will not proceed with restructuring the MUTCD into two documents at this time.

FHWA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. We published a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day public comment period on this information collection on March 22, 2013. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

This notice provides information regarding the FHWA's finding that a conditional Buy America waiver is appropriate for the obligation of Federal-aid Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement program funds for the purchase of three vehicles; Sedan or hatch back (Driver + 4 passenger capacity) two wheeled drive with minimum 27 MPG for the State of Vermont.

EPA and NHTSA, on behalf of the Department of Transportation, are each adopting corrections to provisions in our respective Medium- and Heavy-Duty Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency final rule issued on September 15, 2011. These amendments eliminate duplicative reporting requirements, reduce inadvertent minor differences between the EPA and NHTSA programs regarding such matters as voluntary early model year compliance, better align testing procedures to market realities, and reduce unnecessary testing burdens. This action also separately amends several regulations exclusive to EPA by: adjusting the provisions of the replacement engine exemption, expanding EPA's discretion to allow greater flexibility under the Transition Program for Equipment Manufacturers related to the Tier 4 standards for nonroad diesel engines, specifying multiple versions of the applicable SAE standard for demonstrating that fuel lines for nonroad spark-ignition engines above 19 kilowatts meet permeation requirements, and allowing for the use of the ethanol-based test fuel specified by the California Air Resources Board for nonroad spark-ignition engines at or below 19 kilowatts. Some of the individual EPA-only provisions of this action may have minor impacts on the costs and emission reductions of the underlying regulatory programs amended in this action, though in most cases these are simple technical amendments. For those provisions that may have a minor impact on the costs or benefits of the amended regulatory program, any potential impacts would be small and we have not attempted to quantify the potential changes.