Subpart W Quarterly Call – January 3, 2013

Attendees

EPA: Reid Rosnick (ORIA), Angelique Diaz (Region 8), Susan Stahle (OGC)

Environmental Groups Jennifer Thurston (INFORM)

Other Travis Stills (Energy Minerals Law Center)

Industry Oscar Paulson (Kennecott), Katie Sweeney (Nat ional Mining Association), John Cash (UrEnergy), Mike Thomas (?), John McCarthy (?), B ill Carney (Uranium One), Mike Griffin (Strata Energy), Jim Cain (Cotter)

Reid

 No comments received on October call draft minutes

 Very little to report since the last call. Update on rule package: scheduled to be received by OMB on 2/8/2013. I have been told that Court ordered deadline rules are at OMB with higher priority than Subpart W – reason for the hol d up. Subpart W behind rules with court ordered deadlines, but before general rules because there is a settlement agreement in place.

Questions/Comments/Discussion

Travis Stills: Referred to FOIA documents. Tr avis claims that EPA is 18 months out of compliance with documents being placed on th e website. Repeating his claim regarding placement of documents on the website, and says he doesn’t see a good faith attempt by EPA to conform to agreement.

Reid: He doesn’t have authority over when rulema king packages are sent to OMB; that would be
the Administrator’s office.

Travis Stills: Request that minutes reflect that the Administrator’s o ffice is not going forward with the rulemaking package. SO NOTEDKatie Sweeney: Why isn’t this rulemaking in the regulatory agenda that came out last week? Neither was Part 192, curious why they weren’t included. Note that after the conference call
Katie sent two websites she uses to track EPA regulations (Subpart W):

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/Rul eGate.nsf/(LookupRIN)2060-AP26#1

http://regulations.gov/#!documen tDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OA-2012-1987-0001

Reid: Wasn’t aware of that. Doesn’t have the answer, Reid will find out and address in the minutes. Reid will also try to find status of part 192 rule. ACTION SINCE THE CONFERENCE
CALL: SENIOR LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF EPA IS AWARE OF THE DELAY IN
SENDING THE SUBPART W RULMAKING PA CKAGE TO OMB. REID HAS BEEN
DIRECTED TO TELL THE STAK EHOLDERS TO THANK THEM FOR THEIR PATIENCE, STAY TUNED, AND THAT MORE INFORMATION WILL BE PROVIDED IN THE
SPRING 2013 REGULATORY AGENDA.

Katie Sweeney: Status update is helpful, becau se there is no info on the web regarding updates

anymore.

Reid: Actually, on the Subpart W website ( http://www.epa.gov/radiat ion/neshaps/subpartw/ru lemaking-activity.html ) there is a section (required by the settlement agreement) that posts a tentative completion estimate for the rule, and it is updated as necessary. We assume there is a 90 day review period once we give the package to OMB. Therefore th e proposed rule would be signed in mid to late June of this year and out for public comments.

Katie Sweeney: Looked at the EPA dashboard.

Travis Stills: Who do you communicate with in Administrator’s office?

Reid: It’s in the Office of Policy - Barry Elman, staff person, member of the Subpart W workgroup.

Travis Stills: Sees it being pushed from desk to desk and not going anywhere. Asking for assurance that this is handled by folks with au thority to move rulemakings, doesn’t think it is.

Reid: Will see what he can do to see why the rulemaking is not on the current regulatory agenda and pin down a more realistic time for package. SEE ABOVE ACTION ITEM.Katie Sweeney: 90 days is optimistic for OMB. Ru les have been sitting there for a couple years or longer.

Reid: Correct. The updates I give are the most optimistic deadlines.

Travis Stills: What has been done since the last call to move the regulation forward?

Reid: Once package goes to Office of Policy and th en on to OMB, it is out of our hands. Reid again explained the queue of regulations and wh ere the log jam is becau se of prioritization. Difficult to determine how many ar e in the line and how they get moved over. Reid will try to provide additional information on the process. Will post what I discover in the minutes.
ACTION SINCE THE CONFEREN CE CALL: SENIOR LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF EPA IS
AWARE OF THE DELAY IN SENDING TH E SUBPART W RULMAKING PACKAGE TO
OMB. REID HAS BEEN DIRECTED TO TE LL THE STAKEHOLDERS TO THANK THEM FOR THEIR PATIENCE, TO STAY TUNED, AND THAT MORE INFORMATION WILL BE
PROVIDED FOR THE SPRING 2013 REGULATORY AGENDA.

Travis Stills: The level of discu ssion and level of authority is not sufficient. This project needs to be handled by people with authority.

Reid: Without any further questions or comments the confer ence call was ended.

NEXT CALL: Thursday, April 4, 2013 11am Eastern Time.