Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 24 / Wednesday, February 5, 2014 / Notices 6899 

List of Subjects 

Environmental protection, Reporting 

and recordkeeping requirements. 

Dated: January 14, 2014. 

James Jones, 

Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical 

Safety and Pollution Prevention. 

[FR Doc. 2014–02224 Filed 2–4–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OA–2014–0129; FRL–9906–20– 

OP] 

Comment Request; Draft Supporting 

Materials for the Science Advisory 

Board Panel on the Role of EconomyWide Modeling in U.S. EPA Analysis of 

Air Regulations 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is evaluating the 

appropriate role for economy-wide 

modeling in informing the regulatory 

process. Toward that end, EPA is 

developing an ‘‘analytic blueprint’’ of 

materials on the technical merits and 

challenges of using economy-wide 

models to evaluate the social costs, 

benefits and economic impacts 

associated with EPA’s air regulations. In 

addition, EPA will be seeking advice 

from the Science Advisory Board (SAB) 

on economy-wide modeling and will 

present materials from the analytic 

blueprint to inform a discussion of 

charge questions to a new SAB panel 

with expertise in economy-wide 

modeling. In a forthcoming Federal 

Register Notice, EPA’s Science Advisory 

Board Staff Office will be soliciting 

nominations for this panel to provide 

advice on the use of economy-wide 

models to evaluate the economic effects 

of air regulations. In today’s Notice, EPA 

is soliciting public comment on both the 

draft charge questions and draft analytic 

blueprint of materials that could be 

presented to the SAB in order to inform 

how to appropriately discuss the issues 

with the panel. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before April 7, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

referencing Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OA–2014–0129 by one of the following 

methods: 

• www.regulations.gov: Follow the 

on-line instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• Email: oei.docket@epa.gov. 

• Fax: (202) 566–9744. 

• Mail: Office of Environmental 

Information, Environmental Protection 

Agency, Mailcode: 28221T, 1200 

Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, 

DC 20460. 

• Hand Delivery: 

Instructions: Direct your comments to 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OA–2014– 

0129. EPA’s policy is that all comments 

received will be included in the public 

docket without change and may be 

made available online at 

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. 

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 email 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. 

Docket: All documents in the docket 

are listed in the www.regulations.gov 

index. Although listed in the index, 

some information is not publicly 

available, e.g., CBI or other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Certain other material, such as 

copyrighted material, will be publicly 

available only in hard copy. Publicly 

available docket materials are available 

either electronically in 

www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at 

the OEI Docket, EPA/DC, EPA West, 

Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. 

NW., Washington, DC. The Public 

Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 

4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

excluding legal holidays. The telephone 

number for the Public Reading Room is 

(202) 566–1744, and the telephone 

number for the OEI Docket is (202) 566– 

1742. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Nathalie Simon, National Center for 

Environmental Economics, Office of 

Policy, (1809T), Environmental 

Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania 

Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460; 

telephone number: 202–566–2347; fax 

number: 202–566–2363; email address: 

simon.nathalie@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Environmental regulations vary widely 

by pollutant, sectoral and geographic 

scope, regulatory design, types of 

benefits and costs, among others. The 

size and complexity of the U.S. 

economy relative to the effects of a 

particular regulation also raises 

questions about which modeling tool is 

most appropriate in a given setting. Air 

regulations have been selected to limit 

the scope of this analytic exercise. For 

each major air regulation, the EPA 

considers these factors when gauging 

which analytic tools can be applied in 

a practical and analytically defensible 

way to estimate costs, benefits, and 

economic impacts within a particular 

regulatory context. 

Economy-wide models attempt to 

capture the interaction and feedback 

effects between different sectors of the 

economy. A common tool to capture 

economy-wide effects is a computable 

general equilibrium (CGE) model. 

According the EPA’s Guidelines for 

Conducting Economic Analyses (EPA 

240–R–10–001) ‘‘CGE models simulate 

the workings of a market economy and 

can include representations of the 

distortions caused by taxes and 

regulations. . . . They are used to 

calculate a set of price and quantity 

variables that will return the simulated 

economy to equilibrium after the 

imposition of a regulation. The social 

cost of the regulation can then be 

estimated by comparing the value of 

variables in the pre-regulation, 

‘baseline’ equilibrium with those in the 

post-regulation, simulated equilibrium.’’ 

However, for nearly all benefit-cost 

analyses conducted by EPA in support 

of air regulations, the costs are 

estimated using engineering or detailed 

partial equilibrium sector models which 

are compared to benefits that are 

likewise estimated through partial 

equilibrium models. EPA has evaluated, 

and will continue to evaluate, the 

appropriate role for economy-wide 

modeling in informing the regulatory 

process. While the Advisory Council on 

Clean Air Compliance Analysis review 

of the Second Prospective Study of the 

Clean Air Act Amendments (EPA– 

COUNCIL–11–001) stated that inclusion 

of benefits in the economy-wide model 

that was specifically adapted for use in 

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6900 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 24 / Wednesday, February 5, 2014 / Notices 

that study ‘‘represent[ed] a significant 

step forward in benefit-cost analysis,’’ 

EPA recognizes that serious technical 

challenges remain when attempting to 

evaluate the benefits and costs of 

potential regulatory actions using 

economy-wide models. The question 

also remains of the value added of using 

economy-wide models to evaluate the 

economic impacts (e.g., energy price 

and labor market impacts) of air 

regulations relative to other modeling 

approaches. 

EPA is looking for early feedback from 

the public on the draft charge questions 

and draft analytic blueprint that 

outlines the materials EPA could supply 

to the SAB to inform their deliberations 

on the technical merits and challenges 

of using economy-wide models to 

estimate the economic effects of air 

regulations and potential paths forward 

for improvements that could address 

such challenges. EPA is soliciting 

comments and information to help it: (i) 

Evaluate whether the Agency has 

identified the most relevant technical 

materials in the analytic blueprint to 

help inform the SAB panel in its 

deliberations; and (ii) assess whether 

the Agency has identified the most 

relevant charge questions to the SAB 

regarding the technical merits and 

challenges of using economy-wide 

models to evaluate the social costs, 

benefits, and economic impacts in the 

context of air regulations. 

EPA will consider the comments 

received and amend the charge 

questions and draft blueprint as 

appropriate. The revised package will 

then be presented to the Science 

Advisory Board for consideration and 

comment. 

EPA’s Science Advisory Board Staff 

Office will issue a separate Federal 

Register Notice to solicit nominations 

for experts to serve on the SAB panel. 

(Information on the SAB, including the 

process for forming review panels, is 

available at http://www.epa.gov/sab). 

Dated: January 29, 2014. 

Joel Beauvais, 

Associate Administrator, Office of Policy. 

[FR Doc. 2014–02471 Filed 2–4–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[FRL 9905–51–Region 9] 

Notice of Proposed Administrative 

Order on Consent for Waipahu Ash 

Landfill, Pearl Harbor Naval Complex 

Superfund Site (partial), Oahu, Hawaii 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice; request for public 

comment. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 

122(i) of the Comprehensive 

Environmental Response, Compensation 

and Liability Act of 1980, as amended 

(‘‘CERCLA’’), notice is hereby given of a 

proposed settlement, embodied in an 

Administrative Order on Consent 

(‘‘Consent Order’’), with the City and 

County of Honolulu (‘‘CCH’’), under 

Sections 104, 107 and 122 of CERCLA. 

The Consent Order concerns work to be 

done by CCH in connection with the 

Waipahu Ash Landfill, located in part 

on the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex 

Superfund Site, Joint Base Pearl HarborHickam, Oahu, Hawaii and on land 

owned by the State of Hawaii and CCH. 

Parties to the Consent Order include the 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

(‘‘EPA’’), the Department of the Navy 

(‘‘Navy’’), Hawaii Department Health 

(‘‘DOH’’), Hawaii Department of Land 

and Natural Resources and CCH. The 

property (the ‘‘Site’’) that is the subject 

of this Consent Order includes all areas 

to which hazardous substances from or 

related to the now closed Waipahu Ash 

Landfill have come to be located. Under 

this Consent Order, CCH agrees to carry 

out a remedial investigation and 

feasibility study of the Site under 

CERCLA. The performance of this work 

shall be approved and monitored by 

EPA in Consultation with the Navy and 

DOH. The settlement includes a 

covenant not to sue CCH pursuant to 

Sections 106 or 107(a) of CERCLA. 

Under the Consent Order, CCH also 

agrees to pay the Navy $63,062.00 in 

past response costs and, to EPA, $25,000 

in prepayment of anticipated annual 

EPA future response costs. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before March 7, 2014. For thirty (30) 

days following the date of publication of 

this notice, EPA will consider all 

comments received on the Consent 

Order and may modify or withdraw its 

consent to the Consent Order if 

comments received disclose facts or 

considerations that indicate that the 

settlement is inappropriate, improper, 

or inadequate. 

ADDRESSES: The Consent Order is 

available for public inspection at the 

United States Environmental Protection 

Agency, Superfund Records Center, 95 

Hawthorne Street, Suite 403S, San 

Francisco, California 94105. Telephone: 

415–536–2000. EPA’s response to any 

comments received will be available for 

public inspection at the same address. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Larry Bradfish, Assistant Regional 

Counsel (ORC–3), Office of Regional 

Counsel, U.S. EPA Region IX, 75 

Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 

94105; Email: bradfish.larry@epa.gov; 

Phone (415) 972–3934. 

Dated: January 27, 2014. 

Enrique Manzanilla, 

Director, Superfund Division, EPA Region 9. 

[FR Doc. 2014–02475 Filed 2–4–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OPP–2013–0744; FRL–9906–01] 

Migratory Bird Treaty Act; 

Memorandum of Understanding 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: EPA is announcing the 

availability of the draft Memorandum of 

Understanding (MOU) between the 

Environmental Protection Agency, 

Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and 

the Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service (FWS) regarding 

implementation of Executive Order 

13186, ‘‘Responsibilities of Federal 

Agencies to Protect Migratory Birds’’ for 

public comment. The purpose of this 

MOU is to promote the conservation of 

migratory bird populations through 

enhanced collaboration between EPA’s 

OPP and FWS regarding actions carried 

out by OPP. Migratory birds are an 

important component of biological 

diversity, and as such, conserving them 

and their habitats supports ecological 

integrity, contributes to public 

conservation education, and enhances 

the growing interest in outdoor 

recreation opportunities. This MOU is 

an important first step in ensuring that 

pesticide use is consistent with these 

conservation goals. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before March 7, 2014. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by docket identification (ID) 

number EPA–HQ–OPP–2013–0744, by 

one of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

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