[Federal Register: October 13, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 197)]
[Notices]
[Page 60861-60863]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr13oc04-46]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-7827-4]
State Innovation Grant Program, Preliminary Notice and Request
for Input on the Development of a Solicitation for Proposals for 2004/
2005 Awards
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation (OPEI) is giving a preliminary notice of its
intention to solicit proposals for a 2004/2005 grant program to support
innovation by state environmental regulatory agencies--the ``State
Innovation Grant Program.'' The Agency is also seeking input from State
Environmental Regulatory Agencies on the topic areas for the
solicitation. In addition, EPA is asking each State Environmental
Regulatory Agency to designate a point of contact at the management
level (in addition to the Commissioner or Cabinet Secretary level) who
should receive further communication about the upcoming solicitation.
EPA anticipates publication of a Federal Register notice to announce
the availability of the next solicitation within 75 days.
DATES: State Environmental Regulatory Agencies will have 30 days from
the date of this pre-announcement notice in the Federal Register
publication until November 12, 2004, to respond with: (1) Suggestions
for specific topics that should be included under the general subject
area of ``Innovation in Environmental Permitting Programs'' (e.g.,
topics with 1-2 paragraphs description) for the next solicitation; and
(2) point of contact information (name, title, mailing address,
telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address) for the person within
the State Environmental Regulatory Agency (in addition to Commissioner
or Cabinet Secretaries) who should receive future notices about the
State Innovation Grants. We will automatically transmit notice of
availability of the solicitation to people in State agencies identified
for previous solicitations.
ADDRESSES: Information should be sent to: State Innovation Grant
Program; Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation; U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (1807T); 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC
20460. Responses may also be sent by fax to (202-566-2220), addressed
to the ``State Innovation Grant Program,'' or by e-mail to:
Innovation_State_Grants@EPA.gov. We encourage e-mail responses. If
you have questions about responding to this notice, please contact EPA
at this e-mail address or fax number, or you may call Sherri Walker at
202-566-2186. For point of contact information, please provide: name,
title, department and agency, street or Post Office address, city,
State, zip code, telephone, fax, and e-mail address. EPA will
acknowledge all responses it receives to this notice.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: In April 2002, EPA issued its plan for future
innovation efforts, published as Innovating for Better Environmental
Results: A Strategy to Guide the Next Generation of Innovation at EPA
(EPA 100-R-02-002; http://www.epa.gov/innovation/strategy/). The
Agency's Innovation Strategy presents a framework for environmental
innovation consisting of four major elements:
(1) Strengthen EPA's innovation partnerships with States;
(2) Focus on priority environmental issues;
(3) Diversify environmental protection tools and approaches;
(4) Foster a more ``innovation-friendly'' organizational culture
and systems. This assistance program strengthens EPA's partnership with
the States by supporting State innovation compatible with the
Innovation Strategy. EPA would like to help States build on previous
experience and undertake strategic innovation projects that promote
larger-scale models for ``next generation'' environmental protection
and promise better environmental results. EPA is interested in funding
projects that go beyond a single facility experiment and obtain better
results from a program, process, or sector-wide innovation. EPA is
particularly interested in innovation that promotes integrated (cross-
media) environmental management and is transferable to other States.
In 2002, EPA initiated the State Innovation Grants Program with a
competition that asked for State project proposals that would create
innovation in environmental permitting programs related to one of the
Innovation Strategy's four priority environmental issues: reducing
greenhouse gases, reducing smog, improving water quality, and ensuring
the long-term integrity of the nations's water infrastructure. In
addition, the solicitation encouraged projects that test incentives
that motivate ``beyond-compliance'' environmental performance, or move
whole sectors toward improved environmental performance. The 2002
competition resulted in six state innovation project awards. In October
2003, the EPA National Center for Environmental Innovation (NCEI)
opened the 2003/2004 competition for projects to be funded in 2004. On
April 16, 2004, EPA announced the ten projects that have been selected
from this new competition. EPA is currently completing awards to States
selected in that competition. For more information on last year's
solicitation, the proposals received, and the 2003-04 award decisions,
please see the Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants.
Request for Input on Solicitation Topics and Priorities: Like the
prior two solicitations, the 2004/2005 State Innovation Grant Program
competition will seek to strengthen EPA's innovation partnership with
States by providing a source of funding to facilitate State efforts to
test new models for ``next generation'' environmental protection that
will provide better environmental results, consistent with the goals of
EPA's Innovation Strategy.
EPA proposes to retain ``innovation in permitting'' as the general
subject area of the upcoming solicitation as well as
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the two specific topics under that theme from last year: (1) Support
for development of state Environmental Results Programs (ERP); and (2)
projects which explore the relationship between Environmental
Management Systems (EMS) and permitting (see EPA's Strategy for
Determining the Role of EMS in Regulatory Programs at http://www.epa.gov/ems or http://www.epa.gov/ems/ policy/EMS--and--the--Reg--
Structure--41204F.pdf). EPA believes the general subject of
``innovation in permitting'' with specific topics of focus makes sense:
the prior two solicitations have evidenced a great deal of innovation
taking place in state permitting programs; and focusing on a small
number of topics within this subject area effectively concentrates the
limited resources available for greater strategic impact. EPA proposes
to add a third specific topic this year to enhance the focus of
eligible projects under the permitting subject area: development and
implementation of incentives for environmental performance that goes
beyond compliance as part of State leadership and recognition programs.
These incentives and their implementation should be transferable to
other State performance-based programs and/or the National
Environmental Performance Track Program. In addition, EPA may
contemplate a very small number of projects otherwise related to the
theme of permitting. EPA is asking for State Environmental Regulatory
Agencies and other interested parties to provide brief (about 1
paragraph) suggestions about additional innovation topics within the
subject of innovation in permitting for possible inclusion in the
upcoming solicitation. EPA will continue to encourage project proposals
that address the four priority environmental areas identified above
(i.e., reducing greenhouse gases; reducing smog; restoring and
maintaining water quality; reducing the cost of water and wastewater
infrastructure) and use tools (i.e., incentives, information,
performance measurement, etc.) highlighted in the Innovation Strategy.
State Environmental Regulatory Agency respondents should send their
suggestions to EPA by mail, e-mail, or fax as described in the
ADDRESSES section above.
Note: These grants will not be applied to the development or
demonstration of new environmental technologies, nor will NCEI be
looking to fund projects that have as a primary focus the upgrading
of information technology systems. Projects would be much less
likely to be funded through this State Innovation Grant if agency
resources are already available through another agency program.
Competition Limited to the State Environmental Regulatory Agency:
The competition will be limited to the principal Environmental
Regulatory Agency within each State, although these agencies are
encouraged to partner with other agencies within the State that have
environmental mandates (e.g., natural resources management,
transportation, public health, energy). EPA will accept only one
proposal from an individual State and it must be submitted by the
principal Environmental Regulatory Agency from that State. States are
also encouraged to partner with neighboring States to address cross-
boundary issues, to create networks for peer-mentoring, and States are
particularly encouraged to consider partnering with Tribal governments
in developing projects and proposals. A multi-state or State-Tribal
proposal will be accepted in addition to an individual State proposal,
but a State may appear in no more than one multi-State or State-Tribal
proposal in addition to its individual State proposal.
Request for State to Designate a Primary Point of Contact: EPA asks
that each State Environmental Regulatory Agency designate as a primary
point-of-contact, a manager who we will add to the EPA notification
list for further announcements about the State Innovation Grant
Program. We are asking that this name be submitted with the approval of
the highest levels of management within an Agency (Secretary,
Commissioner, or their deputies) within 30 days after publication of
this notice in the FR November 12, 2004. Please submit this information
to EPA as described in the ADDRESSES section above.
Open Dialogue: Between now and the completion and release of the
solicitation, States are encouraged to discuss potential projects with
their EPA Regional contact to ascertain whether the scope of a
potential project is suitable for funding under this program. Feel free
to contact the appropriate Regional contact and the EPA HQ National
Center for Environmental Innovation:
Regional Contacts
George Frantz, U.S. EPA Region I, 1 Congress Street, Suite 1100,
Boston, MA 02114-2023, (617) 918-1883, frantz.george@epa.gov, States:
ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI.
Jennifer Thatcher, U.S. EPA Region 2, 290 Broadway, 26th Floor, New
York, NY 10007-1866, (212) 637-3593, thatcher.jennifer@epa.gov, States
& Territories: NY, NJ, PR, VI.
Marie Holman, U.S. EPA Region 3, 1650 Arch Street (3EA40),
Philadelphia, PA 19103, (215) 814-5463, holman.marie@epa.gov, States:
DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV.
Melissa Heath, U.S. EPA Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street, SW., Atlanta, GA
30303, (404) 562-8381, heath.melissa@epa.gov, States: AL, FL, GA, KY,
MS, NC, SC, TN.
Marilou Martin, U.S. EPA Region 5, B-19J, 77 West Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago, IL 60604-3507, (312) 353-9660, martin.marilou@epa.gov, States:
MN, WI, MI, IL, IN, OH.
David Bond, U.S. EPA Region 6, Fountain Place, Suite 1200, 1445 Ross
Avenue, Dallas, TX 75202-2733, (214) 665-6431, bond.david@epa.gov,
States: AR, LA, NM, OK, TX.
David Erickson, U.S. EPA Region 7, 901 N. 5th Street, Kansas City, KS
66101, (913) 551-7162, erickson.david@epa.gov, States: KS, MO, NE, IA.
Whitney Trulove-Cranor, U.S. EPA Region 8 (8P-SA), 999 18th Street,
Suite 300, Denver, CO 80202-2466, (303) 312-6099,
trulove-cranor.whitney@epa.gov, States: CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY.
Julie Anderson, U.S. EPA Region 9, 75 Hawthorne Street (SPE-1), San
Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 947-4260, anderson.julie@epa.gov, States &
Territories: CA, NV, AZ, HI, AS, GU.
Bill Glasser, U.S. EPA Region 10, 1200 Sixth Avenue (ENF-T), Seattle,
WA 98101, 206-553-7215, glasser.william@epa.gov, States: AK, ID, OR,
WA.
Headquarters Office
State Innovation Grants Program, National Center for Environmental
Innovation, Office of the Administrator, U.S. EPA (MC 1807T), 1200
Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, (202) 566-2186, (202)
566-2220 FAX, Innovation_State_Grants@epa.gov.
For courier delivery only: Sherri Walker, U.S. EPA, EPA West
Building, room 4214D, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC
20005.
Opportunity for Focused Pre-Competition Workshop: In addition,
prior to this year's solicitation, we are planning to host a series of
five ``cluster'' phone calls with sets of two EPA Regions and all of
their States. These conference calls will enable us to offer a two-hour
streamlined proposal development workshop to all States prior to our
solicitation, and will allow us to answer any questions that the States
have prior to the competition, in
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keeping with Federal requirements that we afford assistance fairly in a
competition process. Specific conference call logistics and grant
resource information will be provided to each Region and the States as
well as being posted on our Web site at http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants.
We will probably conduct one conference call (workshop)
per week, for five weeks in October, through early November 2004.
Workshop summaries, and all other resource materials will be posted on
the Web site at http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants. Through this
effort, we are hoping to encourage individual States (and/or State-led
teams) to submit well-developed pre-proposals that effectively describe
in particular how their project will achieve measurable environmental
results.
Dated: October 6, 2004.
Elizabeth Shaw,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy Innovation.
[FR Doc. 04-22958 Filed 10-12-04; 8:45 am]
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