Environmental Protection Agency April 1, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, EPA gives notice of a meeting of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) and Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to the U.S. Representative to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The National and Governmental Advisory Committees advise the EPA Administrator in his capacity as the U.S. Representative to the CEC Council. The Committees are authorized under Articles 17 and 18 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, Public Law 103-182, and as directed by Executive Order 12915, entitled ``Federal Implementation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.'' The NAC is composed of 14 members representing academia, environmental non-governmental organizations, and private industry. The GAC consists of 15 members representing state, local, and Tribal governments. The Committees are responsible for providing advice to the U.S. Representative on a wide range of strategic, scientific, technological, regulatory, and economic issues related to implementation and further elaboration of the NAAEC. The purpose of this committee meeting is to provide advice on the 2013-14 Draft Operational Plan and Budget of the CEC and to discuss other trade and environment issues related to the NAAEC. The meeting will also include a public comment session. The agenda and meeting materials will be available at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OA-2013-0125. General information about NAC and GAC can be found at https://www.epa.gov/ofacmo/nacgac-page.htm.

EPA proposes to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision submitted by the Commonwealth of Virginia for the purpose of amending existing regulation 9VAC5 Chapter 151 in order to incorporate Federal revisions to transportation conformity requirements. In the Final Rules section of this Federal Register, EPA is approving the Commonwealth's SIP submittal as a direct final rule without prior proposal because EPA views this as a noncontroversial submittal and anticipates no adverse comments. A detailed rationale for the approval is set forth in the direct final rule. If no adverse comments are received in response to this action, no further activity is contemplated. If EPA receives adverse comments, the direct final rule will be withdrawn and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule based on this proposed rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period. Any parties interested in commenting on this action should do so at this time.