[Federal Register: November 10, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 217)]
[Notices]
[Page 68443-68445]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10no05-119]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-7994-8]
State Innovation Grant Program, Preliminary Notice on the
Development of a Solicitation for Proposals for 2006 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 preliminary notice of its
intention to solicit proposals for a 2006 grant program to support
innovation by state environmental regulatory agencies--the ``State
Innovation Grant Program.'' 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
[[Page 68444]]
level) who will be the point of contact for further communication about
the upcoming solicitation. If your point of contact from previous State
Innovation Grant solicitations is to be your contact for this year's
competition, there is no need to send that information again, as all
previously designated points of contact will remain on our notification
list for this year's competition. EPA anticipates publication of a
Federal Register notice to announce the availability of the next
solicitation approximately three weeks after publication of this
announcement.
DATES: State Environmental Regulatory Agencies will have 14 days from
the date of this pre-announcement notice in the Federal Register
publication until November 25, 2005 to respond with point of contact
information for the person within the State Environmental Regulatory
Agency (in addition to Commissioner or Cabinet Secretaries) who will be
designated to 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 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 to promote change that is
``systems-oriented'' and provides better results from a program,
process, or sector-wide innovation. EPA is particularly interested in
innovation that promotes integrated (cross-media) environmental
management with high potential for transfer to other States.
In 2002, EPA initiated the State Innovation Grant 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 through models
such as Environmental Results Programs, Environmental Management
Systems and the National Environmental Performance Track Program.
Fifteen total awards to States have been made from the three prior
competitions. Awards from the 2002 solicitation competition totaled
$618,000. Awards from the 2003-2004 competition were approximately $1.6
million dollars. EPA is currently completing awards to seven States
selected in the 2005 competition. Of those projects that have been
awarded, including those with pending awards: 11 are for development of
Environmental Results Programs, 7 relate to Environmental Management
Systems and permitting, 2 are to enhance Performance-Based
Environmental Leadership programs, 2 are for Watershed-based
permitting, and 1 is Information Technology. For more information on
last year's solicitation, the proposals received, and the award
decisions, please see the Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants
.
Proposed General Topic Areas for Solicitation: Because the Agency
has limited funding for the Program, NCEI wants to maximize the
strategic impact of these projects. Our intention, therefore is to
retain ``innovation in permitting'' as the general subject area of the
upcoming solicitation with special attention toward the three specific
topics under that theme from last year: (1) Projects that support the
development of state Environmental Results Programs (ERP); (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/docs/EMS_
and--the-- Reg--Structure--41204F.pdf); (3)
projects that support state performance-based programs or state support
for implementation of Performance Track particularly with regard to
development and implementation of incentives. EPA's focus on a small
number of topics within this general subject area effectively
concentrates the limited resources available for greater strategic
impact. Project selections and awards will be subject to funding
availability for each topic area. In addition, EPA may contemplate a
very limited number of projects otherwise related to the theme of
permitting, in particular as they may address EPA Regional and State
environmental permitting priorities.
As in previous rounds of this competition, the 2006 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.
This grant program emphasizes interest in funding projects that go
beyond a single facility experiment to promote change that is
``systems-oriented'' and provides better results from a program,
process, or sector-wide innovation. Another key goal for this grant
program is practical transferability of innovation that enables or
supports other States to motivate their designated or geographical
priority facility(ies) of choice to provide ``beyond compliance''
environmental performance, or to move whole sectors toward improved
environmental performance.
[[Page 68445]]
Note: These grants will not be applied to the development or
demonstration of new environmental technologies, nor will NCEI fund
projects that propose development or upgrading of information
technology systems for anything other than a very minor component of
the project. Projects will be much less likely to be funded through
the State Innovation Grant Program 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 other States and Tribes to address
cross-boundary issues, and to create networks for peer-mentoring. 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
proposal. EPA regrets that because of the limitations in available
funding it is not yet able to open this competition to Native American
Tribal environmental agencies but we strongly encourage Tribal agencies
to join with adjacent States in project proposals.
Request for Designation of 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. If your point of contact from previous State Innovation Grant
solicitations is to be your contact for this year's competition, there
is no need to send that information again, as all previously designated
points of contact will remain on our notification list for this year's
competition. 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 14 days after
publication of this notice in the Federal Register November 25, 2005.
Please submit this information to EPA by mail, fax or e-mail in the
following manner.
By mail to: State Innovation Grant Program, Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1807T),
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460.
By fax to: ``State Innovation Grant Program'', 202-566-2220.
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.
Opportunity for Dialogue: Between now and the initiation of the
competition with the 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. Unlike last year, we will not be hosting a
series of pre-competition workshops for all States and Regions.
Questions that come to us during this period, as well as our responses,
along with helpful resource materials will be posted on the State
Innovation Grant Web site at http://www.epa.gov/innovation/stategrants.
The Regional contacts and the EPA HQ National Center for Environmental
Innovation are as follows:
Regional Contacts
George Frantz
U.S. EPA Region I
1 Congress Street, Suite 1100
Boston, MA 02114-2023
(617)
918-1883frantz.george@epa.gov
States: ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI
Grace Smith
U.S. EPA Region 2
290 Broadway, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10007-1866
(212)
637-3589smith.grace@epa.gov
States & Territories: NY, NJ, PR, VI
Marie Holman
U.S. EPA Region 3
1650 Arch Street (3EA40)
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215)
814-5463holman.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)
562-8381heath.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)
353-9660martin.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)
665-6431bond.david@epa.gov
States: AR, LA, NM, OK, TX
Chrissy Wolfersberger
U.S. EPA Region 7
901 N. 5th Street
Kansas City, KS 66101
(913)
551-7864wolfersberger.chris@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)
312-6099trulove-cranor.whitney@epa.gov
States: CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY
Loretta Barsamian
U.S. EPA Region 9
75 Hawthorne Street (SPE-1)
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415)
947-4268barsamian.loretta@epa.gov
States & Territories: CA, NV, AZ, HI, AS, GU
Bill Glasser
U.S. EPA Region 10
1200 Sixth Avenue (ENF-T)
Seattle, WA 09101
206-553-7215glasser.william@epa.gov
States: AK, ID, OR, WA
Headquarters Office:
Sherri Walker
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
faxInnovation_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
Dated: November 2, 2005.
Elizabeth Shaw,
Director, Office of Environmental Policy Innovation.
[FR Doc. 05-22379 Filed 11-9-05; 8:45 am]
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