Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 36 / Friday, February 23, 2007 / Proposed Rules 8143 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

48 CFR Parts 1523 and 1552 

[EPA–HQ–OARM–2007–0102; FRL 8280–4] 

EPAAR Prescription and Solicitation 

Provision—EPA Green Meetings and 

Conferences 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to revise the 

EPA Acquisition Regulation (EPAAR) 

Subparts 1523 and 1552 to establish 

policy and procedures for acquiring 

environmentally preferable meeting and 

conference services. This proposed 

EPAAR revision will add a prescription 

and solicitation provision that Agency 

employees will be required to use when 

soliciting quotes or offers for meeting 

and conference space and services. The 

solicitation provision will require 

meeting and conference venues to 

provide EPA with information about 

environmentally preferable features and 

practices in use at their facilities. As 

stated in the Federal Acquisition 

Regulation (FAR), environmentally 

preferable products and services are 

those ‘‘that have a lesser or reduced 

effect on human health and the 

environment when compared with 

competing products or services that 

serve the same purpose.’’ The intent of 

this rule is to ensure that environmental 

preferability is considered in each 

purchase of commercial meeting and 

conference services, which furthers the 

EPA mission to protect human health 

and the environment. 

This action revises the EPAAR, but 

does not impose any new requirements 

on Agency contractors. The procedure 

will require Agency employees to 

request information from prospective 

meeting venues about their 

environmentally preferable (green) 

practices for consideration in the award 

decision, thus encouraging the industry 

to adopt more of these practices so that 

we will be more likely to do business 

with them. This rule imposes no 

requirement or standard that a facility 

must meet in order to do business with 

us. 

DATES: Interested parties should submit 

comments in writing on or before March 

26, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–

OARM–2007–0102, by one of the 

following methods: 

• http://www.regulations.gov: Follow 

the on-line instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• Email: oei.docket@epa.gov. 

• Mail: EPA Docket Center, 

Environmental Protection Agency, 

Mailcode: 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania 

Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. 

Attention Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–

OARM–2007–0102. 

• Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center, 

Environmental Protection Agency, OEI 

Docket, EPA/DC, EPA West, Room 

B102, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., 

Washington, DC. Such deliveries are 

only accepted during the Docket’s 

normal hours of operation, and special 

arrangements should be made for 

deliveries of boxed information. 

Instructions: Direct your comments to 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OARM–2007–

0102. EPA’s policy is that all comments 

received will be included in the public 

docket without change and may be 

made available online at http:// 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided, unless 

the comment includes information 

claimed to be Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Do not submit information that you 

consider to be CBI or otherwise 

protected through www.regulations.gov 

or e-mail. The www.regulations.gov Web 

site is an ‘‘anonymous access’’ system, 

which means EPA will not know your 

identity or contact information unless 

you provide it in the body of your 

comment. If you send an e-mail 

comment directly to EPA without going 

through www.regulations.gov your email address will be automatically 

captured and included as part of the 

comment that is placed in the public 

docket and made available on the 

Internet. If you submit an electronic 

comment, EPA recommends that you 

include your name and other contact 

information in the body of your 

comment and with any disk or CD–ROM 

you submit. If EPA cannot read your 

comment due to technical difficulties 

and cannot contact you for clarification, 

EPA may not be able to consider your 

comment. Electronic files should avoid 

the use of special characters, any form 

of encryption, and be free of any defects 

or viruses. For additional information 

about EPA’s public docket visit the EPA 

Docket Center homepage at http:// 

www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tiffany Schermerhorn, Policy, Training 

and Oversight Division, Office of 

Acquisition Management, Mail Code 

3802R, Environmental Protection 

Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 

Washington, DC 20460; e-mail address: 

schermerhorn.tiffany@epa.gov, 

telephone (202) 564–9902. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

The proposed EPAAR additions are 

necessary so that the Agency can ensure 

that environmental preferability is 

considered in all purchases of 

commercial meeting and conference 

services. The new solicitation provision 

will not impose a substantial additional 

burden on meeting venues since they 

currently submit quotes or offers to the 

Agency in response to solicitations for 

meeting and conference services, and 

the rule will allow the information to be 

obtained electronically or orally when 

appropriate to the acquisition. The 

EPAAR changes are consistent with the 

FAR. 

II. Statutory and Executive Order 

Reviews 

A. Executive Order 12866 

It has been determined that this rule 

is not a ‘‘significant regulatory action’’

under the terms of Executive Order 

12866 and is therefore not subject to 

OMB review. 

B. Paperwork Reduction Act 

This action does not impose an 

information collection burden under the 

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction 

Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. This rule 

does not impose any new information 

collection or other requirements on 

Agency contractors. Collection of 

information from prospective 

contractors via Agency solicitation is 

covered under existing active clearances 

OMB 9000–0136, Commercial Item 

Acquisitions—FAR Sections Affected: 

Part 12; 52.212–1 and 52.212–3, a 

Federal Acquisition Regulation 

clearance, in the case of commercial 

item simplified acquisitions; and OMB 

2030–0006, Invitations for Bids and 

Request for Proposals (IFBs and RFPs), 

an EPA clearance, in the case of sealed 

bid or negotiated procurements. These 

clearances allow information to be 

collected from a quoter or offeror with 

the purpose of evaluating its capabilities 

for performing the contract 

requirements. In the case of this 

regulation, one of EPA’s requirements is 

to purchase environmentally preferable 

meeting and conference services to the 

greatest extent practicable, so we will 

need to solicit from each facility a 

technical description of 

environmentally preferable measures it 

has in place. 

C. Regulatory Flexibility Act 

The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) 

generally requires an agency to prepare 

a regulatory flexibility analysis of any 

rule subject to notice and comment 


cprice-sewell on PROD1PC61 with PROPOSALS
8144 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 36 / Friday, February 23, 2007 / Proposed Rules 

rulemaking requirements under the 

Administrative Procedure Act or any 

other statute unless the agency certifies 

that the rule will not have a significant 

economic impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. Small entities 

include small businesses, small 

organizations, and small governmental 

jurisdictions. 

For purposes of assessing the impacts 

of today’s rule on small entities, small 

entity is defined as: (1) A small business 

as defined by the Small Business 

Administration’s (SBA) regulations at 13 

CFR 121.201; (2) a small governmental 

jurisdiction that is a government of a 

city, county, town, school district or 

special district with a population of less 

than 50,000; and (3) a small 

organization that is any not-for-profit 

enterprise which is independently 

owned and operated and is not 

dominant in its field. 

After considering the economic 

impacts of today’s proposed rule on 

small entities, I certify that this action 

will not have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities. This proposed rule will not 

impose any new requirements on small 

entities. 

List of Subjects in 48 CFR Parts 1523 

and 1552 

Environmental Protection, 

Government procurement. 

Dated: February 16, 2007. 

John C. Gherardini, III, 

Acting Director, Office of Acquisition 

Management. 

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, chapter 15 of title 48 Code of 

Federal Regulations, parts 1523 and 

1552 are proposed to be amended as 

follows: 

PART 1523—ENVIRONMENTAL, 

CONSERVATION, OCCUPATIONAL 

SAFETY, AND DRUG-FREE 

WORKPLACE 

1. The authority citation for 48 CFR 

part 1523 continues to read as follows: 

Authority: Sec. 205(c), 63 Stat. 390, as 

amended, 40 U.S.C. 486(c). 

2. Add Subpart 1523.7 to read as 

follows. 

Subpart 1523.7—Contracting for 

Environmentally Preferable Products and 

Services 

1523.703 Policies and procedures. 

1523.703–1 Acquisition of environmentally 

preferable meeting and conference 

services. 

Subpart 1523.7—Contracting for 

Environmentally Preferable Products 

and Services 

1523.703 Policies and procedures. 

1523.703–1 Acquisition of environmentally 

preferable meeting and conference 

services. 

(a) Scope. This section establishes 

policy and procedures for acquiring 

environmentally preferable meeting and 

conference services. For purposes of this 

section, the term ‘‘contracting officer’’

refers to any EPA employee with 

purchasing authority. For the purposes 

of this section, the term ‘‘meeting and 

conference services’’ refers to any 

purchase by an EPA employee of the use 

of off-site commercial facilities for an 

EPA event, whether the event is a 

meeting, conference, training session, or 

other purpose. 

(b) Policy. Contracting officers must 

purchase environmentally preferable 

meeting and conference services to the 

greatest extent practicable. 

Environmental preferability is defined 

at FAR 2.101. Environmental 

preferability shall be considered in all 

purchases of meeting and conference 

services. 

(c) Procedures for micropurchases. 

The contracting officer shall request 

information on environmentally 

preferable features and practices from 

each meeting and conference services 

vendor solicited using the provision or 

language substantially the same as the 

provision at 1552.223–71. 

(d) Procedures for purchases 

exceeding micropurchase threshold. 

The contracting officer shall request 

information on environmentally 

preferable features and practices from 

each meeting and conference services 

vendor using the provision or language 

substantially the same as the provision 

at 1552.223–71, and shall notify vendors 

that basis for award will be best valued 

with price and other factors considered. 

Environmental preferability must be 

considered among the other factors. The 

contracting officer shall determine the 

relative importance of price and other 

factors as appropriate to the acquisition. 

(e) Contractor support for meetings 

and conferences. A contract, order, 

work assignment or purchasing 

agreement that includes contractor 

support for meeting and conference 

planning and logistics must include a 

green meeting and conference 

requirement. The contracting officer 

shall ensure language is included in the 

tasking document work statement that 

requires the contractor to use the 

provision at 1552.223–71, or language 

approved by the contracting officer that 

is substantially the same as the 

provision, when soliciting quotes or 

offers for meeting and conference 

services on behalf of the EPA. 

(f) Solicitation Provision. The 

contracting officer shall insert the 

provision or language substantially the 

same as the provision at 1552.223–71, 

EPA Green Meetings and Conferences, 

in solicitations for meeting and 

conference services. Contracting officers 

issuing an oral solicitation must also use 

the provision, though it may be 

provided to the vendor orally or 

electronically. Contractors soliciting 

quotes or offers for meeting and 

conference services on behalf of EPA 

shall use the provision, or language 

approved by the contracting officer that 

is substantially the same as the 

provision. 

3. The authority citation for 48 CFR 

part 1552 continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; Sec. 205(c), 63 

Stat. 390, as amended, 40 U.S.C. 486(c); and 

41 U.S.C. 418b. 

PART 1552—SOLICITATION 

PROVISIONS AND CONTRACT 

CLAUSES 

4. Add § 1552.223–71 to read as 

follows. 

1552.223–71 EPA Green Meetings and 

Conferences. 

As prescribed in 1523.703–1, insert 

the following provision or language 

substantially the same as the provision 

in solicitations for meetings and 

conference services. 

EPA Green Meetings and Conferences 

(XXX 2007) 

(a) The mission of the EPA is to 

protect human health and the 

environment. We expect that all Agency 

meetings and conferences will be staged 

using as many environmentally 

preferable measures as possible. 

Environmentally preferable means 

products or services that have a lesser 

or reduced effect on the environment 

when compared with competing 

products or services that serve the same 

purpose. 

(b) As a potential meeting or 

conference provider for EPA, we require 

information about environmentally 

preferable features and practices your 

facility will have in place for the EPA 

event described in the solicitation. 

(c) The following list is provided to 

assist you in identifying 

environmentally preferable measures 

and practices used by your facility. 

More information about EPA’s Green 

Meetings initiative may be found on the 

Internet at http://www.epa.gov/oppt/ 

greenmeetings/. Information about EPA 


cprice-sewell on PROD1PC61 with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 36 / Friday, February 23, 2007 / Proposed Rules 8145 

voluntary partnerships may be found at 

http://www.epa.gov/partners/index.htm. 

(1) Do you have a recycling program? 

If so, please describe. 

(2) Do you have a linen/towel reuse 

option that is communicated to guests? 

(3) Do guests have easy access to 

public transportation or shuttle services 

at your facility? 

(4) Are lights and air conditioning 

turned off when rooms are not in use? 

If so, how do you ensure this? 

(5) Do you provide bulk dispensers or 

reusable containers for beverages, food 

and condiments? 

(6) Do you provide reusable serving 

utensils, napkins and tablecloths when 

food and beverages are served? 

(7) Do you have an energy efficiency 

program? Please describe. 

(8) Do you have a water conservation 

program? Please describe. 

(9) Does your facility provide guests 

with paperless check-in & check-out? 

(10) Does your facility use recycled or 

recyclable products? Please describe. 

(11) Do you provide training to your 

employees on these green initiatives? 

Please describe. 

(12) What other environmental 

initiatives have you undertaken, 

including any environment-related 

certifications you possess, EPA 

voluntary partnerships in which you 

participate, support of a green suppliers 

network, or other initiatives? Include 

‘‘Green Meeting’’ information in your 

quotation so that we may consider 

environmental preferability in selection 

of our meeting venue. 

[FR Doc. E7–3114 Filed 2–22–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 622 

[I.D. 021507B] 

South Atlantic Fishery Management 

Council; Public Hearings 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notification of public hearings. 

SUMMARY: The South Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council (Council) will 

convene a series of public hearings 

regarding Amendment 18 to the Fishery 

Management Plan for Coastal Migratory 

Pelagic Resources of the Gulf of Mexico 

and South Atlantic. Amendment 18 will 

modify the total allowable catch (TAC) 

for the Atlantic migratory group king 

mackerel and Spanish mackerel 

fisheries, and change the commercial 

trip limits for Spanish mackerel to 

reflect recent changes in the fishing 

year. 

DATES: The public hearings will be held 

in March 2007. See SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION for the specific dates and 

times of the public hearings. 

Written comments must be received 

in the Council office (see ADDRESSES) by 

close of business on April 10, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be sent to Bob Mahood, Executive 

Director, South Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council, 4055 Faber Place 

Drive, Suite 201, North Charleston, SC 

29405, or via email to 

MackerelAmendment18@safmc.net. 

Copies of the public hearing document 

are available from Kim Iverson at the 

address above or by calling 843–571–

4366 or toll free at 866/SAFMC–10. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kim 

Iverson, South Atlantic Fishery 

Management Council, 4055 Faber Place 

Drive, Suite 201, North Charleston, SC 

29405; telephone: 843–571–4366; fax: 

843–769–4520; email: 

kim.iverson@safmc.net. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Council initiated a regulatory 

amendment in June 2006 to adjust the 

TAC for both Atlantic migratory group 

king and Spanish mackerel following an 

assessment and report reflecting the 

need to reduce the current TACs. The 

Council is proposing to reduce the 

current annual TAC for king mackerel 

from 10.0 million lb (4.5 million kg) to 

7.1 million lb (3.2 million kg), and for 

Spanish mackerel from 7.04 million lb 

(3.19 million kg) to 6.7 million lb (3.0 

million kg). Amendment 18 was 

changed from a regulatory amendment 

to a plan amendment in September 2006 

to allow more flexibility for alternatives. 

While the title has changed, the 

alternatives and information contained 

in the plan amendment remain the 

same. 

Public Hearing Dates and Locations 

All hearings are scheduled to begin at 

6 p.m. 

March 12, 2007 - Hampton Inn St. 

Augustine Beach, 430 A1A Beach 

Boulevard, St. Augustine, FL 32080; 

phone 904/471–4000. 

March 13, 2007 - Hutchinson Island 

Marriott, 555 N.E. Ocean Boulevard, 

Stuart, FL 34996; phone 772/225–3700. 

March 14, 2007 - Sombrero Cay Club 

Resort, 19 Sombrero Boulevard, 

Marathon, FL 33050; phone 305/743–

2250. 

March 19, 2007 - Crystal Coast Civic 

Center, 3505 Arendell Street, Morehead 

City, NC 28557; phone 252/247–3883. 

March 20, 2007 - Shell Island Resort, 

2700 N. Lumina Avenue, Wrightsville 

Beach, NC 28480; phone 910/256–8696. 

March 21, 2007 - Baywatch Resort, 

2701 S. Ocean Boulevard, North Myrtle 

Beach, SC 29582; phone 843/272–4600. 

March 27, 2007 - Hampton Inn, 678 

Citadel Haven Drive, Charleston, SC 

29414; phone 843/573–1200. 

Note: A public hearing for 

Amendment 18 will also be held on 

March 6, 2007, at 6 p.m. in conjunction 

with the March 5–9, 2007 meeting of the 

Council at the Jekyll Island Club, 371 

Riverview Drive, Jekyll Island, GA 

31527. Information regarding the 

Council meeting and hearing will be 

published in an upcoming Federal 

Register notice. 

Special Accommodations 

These meetings are physically 

accessible to people with disabilities. 

Requests for sign language 

interpretation or other auxiliary aids 

should be directed to the Council office 

(see ADDRESSES) by March 9, 2007. 

Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. 

Dated: February 16, 2007. 

James P. Burgess, 

Acting Director, Office of Sustainable 

Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 

[FR Doc. E7–3126 Filed 2–22–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–22–S 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 665 

[I.D. 021507A] 

Western Pacific Fishery Management 

Council; Public Meetings 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of public meetings and 

hearings. 

SUMMARY: The Western Pacific Fishery 

Management Council (Council) will 

hold its 137th meeting to consider and 

take actions on fishery management 

issues in the Western Pacific Region. 

DATES: The 137th Council meeting and 

public hearings will be held on March 

13 – 16, 2007. For specific times and the 

agenda, see SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION. 


cprice-sewell on PROD1PC61 with PROPOSALS