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Inflation Reduction Act, Request for Information Publication: Federal Register Agency: Federal Highway Administration Byline: Andrew Rogers Date: 17 April 2023 Subjects: American Government  , Roads & Highways
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 73 (Monday, April 17, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23499-23501]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08012]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[Docket No. FHWA-2023-0004]
Inflation Reduction Act, Request for Information
AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Department of
Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice; request for information (RFI).
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SUMMARY: FHWA seeks public input on the implementation of section
60505: Environmental Review Implementation Funds, of the Inflation
Reduction Act (IRA).
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 1, 2023.
ADDRESSES: To ensure that you do not duplicate your docket submissions,
please submit all comments by only one of the following ways:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, W12-140, Washington, DC 20590.
Hand Delivery: West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5
p.m. e.t., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The
telephone number is (202) 366-9329.
Instructions: You must include the agency name and the
docket number, FHWA-2021-0021, at the beginning of your comments. All
comments received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided.
Privacy Act: Except as provided below, all comments
received into the docket will be searchable by the name of the
individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted
on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may
review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register
published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477) or at http://www.regulations.gov/ privacy.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions about this RFI, please
contact James G. Gavin, FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and
Realty, (202) 366-1473, or via email at James.Gavin@dot.gov. For legal
questions, please contact Ms. Diane Mobley, FHWA Office of the Chief
Counsel, (202) 366-1366, or via email at Diane.Mobley@dot.gov. Office
hours for FHWA are from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., e.t., Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Electronic Access
A copy of this notice, all comments received on this notice, and
all background material may be viewed online at https://www.regulations.gov using the docket number listed above. Electronic
retrieval help and guidelines are also available at https://www.regulations.gov. An electronic copy of this document may be
downloaded from the Office of the Federal Register's website at:
www.FederalRegister.gov and the Government Publishing Office's website
at: www.GovInfo.gov.
[[Page 23500]]
Background
On August 16, 2022, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed the IRA,
Public Law 117-159 (August 16, 2022), delivering on his promise to
build an economy that works for working families.
The IRA provides over $1 billion over the next 10 years to several
Federal agencies to facilitate efficient and effective reviews under
the National Environmental Policy Act and other Federal processes. This
could include identifying new strategies that would mitigate
environmental impacts and thereby reduce timeframes for environmental
reviews. More information on the IRA can be located at
www.whitehouse.gov or at https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5376/.
To make the most of the IRA's historic investment and new
opportunities, FHWA is seeking input on section 60505, Environmental
Review Implementation Funds. This provision amends title 23, United
States Code (U.S.C.) by adding 23 U.S.C. 178, and provides $100
million, available until September 30, 2026, to the Federal Highway
Administrator. Funds under this program may be made available to
eligible entities to support environmental reviews of surface
transportation projects. Eligible entities for this purpose are: a
State; a unit of local government; a political subdivision of a State;
a Territory of the United States; an entity described in 23 U.S.C.
207(m)(1)(E); a recipient of funds under 23 U.S.C. 203; and a
metropolitan planning organization (as defined in 23 U.S.C. 134(b)(2)).
The funds may also be used by FHWA to develop guidance, technical
assistance, templates, training, or other tools to facilitate an
efficient and effective environmental review process for surface
transportation projects.
The overwhelming majority of transportation projects can generally
be processed with limited environmental documentation as categorical
exclusions (CE). Project delay issues are more likely to occur on
projects with the potential to cause significant environmental effects.
However, even for that subset of projects, environmental review and
permitting is often not the primary source of project delay. Previous
efforts to assess challenges to project delivery have identified
multiple factors that are greater contributors to project delays than
issues with environmental review and permitting. These factors include
inadequate project funding, increased capital costs, lack of consensus
on multi-jurisdictional projects, low project prioritization, project
complexity, local controversy, and changes in project scope.\1\ While
improvements to the environmental review and permitting process may not
directly address these challenges, FHWA is seeking evidence-based
solutions that can both increase the efficiency of environmental
reviews and potentially mitigate the primary sources of delay.
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\1\ See U.S. Department of the Treasury 40 Proposed U.S.
Transportation and Water Infrastructure Projects of Major Economic
Significance (2016), Congressional Research Service Accelerating
Highway and Transit Project Delivery: Issues and Options for
Congress (2011), and National Cooperative Highway Research Program
Accelerating Transportation Project and Program Delivery: Conception
to Completion (2010).
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Through this RFI, FHWA is soliciting information and suggestions
from the public and stakeholders across the public and private sectors
on how best to facilitate FHWA's implementation of this provision.
While the public will have further opportunities to provide input as
the implementation process unfolds, this notice provides an early way
for stakeholders to submit information that can help inform FHWA's
implementation of this provision.
Request for Information
This RFI is intended to solicit information on potential
opportunities and challenges for implementing section 60505 of the IRA,
including: (i) suggestions as to how FHWA might implement this section;
(ii) necessity for additional guidance, tools, training, templates, or
program changes; (iii) program areas requiring new and continued
research. While Congress has specified that these funds will be
administered by FHWA, the purpose of the funds is broadly to support
environmental reviews of surface transportation projects, which may
include rail projects funded by the Federal Railroad Administration and
public transportation projects funded by the Federal Transit
Administration. FHWA specifically requests comments on how these funds
may be used to support this broader group of projects, including those
that do not have FHWA involvement.
Content of Comments
The Department will review all comments submitted to the docket
associated with this Notice, FHWA-2023-0004. FHWA encourages commenters
to provide the following information:
1. Detailed information that you think FHWA should consider while
implementing section 60505 of IRA. For example: Are there constraints
in existing programs that could be addressed with additional funding?
2. Detailed description of the action(s) you think FHWA should take
in response to the opportunity or challenge(s) identified within
existing program areas. For example: financial assistance in the
development of statewide databases to facilitate project reviews;
development of an aid to assist FHWA in early coordination; or the
development of programmatic consultations to accelerate review
processes.
3. Detailed information on what types of assistance and on what
topical areas would be most beneficial to recipients of direct funding
and will facilitate an efficient and effective environmental review
process for surface transportation projects. For example: types of
technical assistance or training, liaisons to assist in resource
studies, tools like geographic information systems to assist with
project planning, scoping, or analysis.
4. Detailed information on what program areas would most benefit
from new or continued research. For example: Are there additional
research needs for specific subject or program areas (planning and
environment linkages, public involvement, use of CEs, etc.)?
5. Detailed information on ways in which FHWA can make resources
available to the eligible entities described in 23 U.S.C. 178(c)(2)
while promoting equity and maximizing the opportunity to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of the environmental review process. For
example: Webinars and training to promote the Screening Tool for Equity
Analysis of Projects and the FHWA Environmental Review Toolkit.
Scope of Comments
The FHWA is interested if there are additional opportunities to
make improvements or accelerate the environmental review process for
existing surface transportation programs, in addition to other State,
local, and Tribal programs, for example through the use of Programmatic
Approaches.
Although FHWA is seeking public input on the implementation on
section 60505 of the IRA through this RFI, it may issue guidance and
begin other activities related to implementation while this docket
remains open.
Under this notice, FHWA is not soliciting petitions for rulemaking
or
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comments on any ongoing rulemaking action.
Andrew Rogers,
Deputy Administrator, Federal Highway Administration.
[FR Doc. 2023-08012 Filed 4-14-23; 8:45 am]
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