### 16258 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 54 / Tuesday, March 20, 2012 / Notices

accommodation is required, please contact the BLM Vale District Office at (541) 473–6218 as soon as possible. Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comments, please be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

The field trip on May 18 will start at 8 a.m. PDT, and members will be looking at grazing parcels in the Denny Flat area. The field trip should end by 2 p.m.

Donald N. Gonzalez, BLM Vale District Manager.

[FR Doc. 2012–6639 Filed 3–19–12; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 4310–33–P**

**DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR**

**Bureau of Ocean Energy Management**

**Notice of Public Scoping Meetings on an Environmental Impact Statement for**  **Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Gulf of Mexico Eastern Planning Area Oil**  **and Gas Lease Sales 225 and 226**

**AGENCY :**  Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Interior.

**ACTION :**  Notice of public scoping meetings and request for comments.

**SUMMARY :**  The Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012–2017 (Proposed Program) schedules two potential lease sales, Proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226, to accommodate anticipated industry interest in the portion of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Eastern Planning Area (EPA) that is notcurrently subject to the Congressionallymandated leasing moratorium. This notice describes the public scoping process that BOEM is initiating in preparation for completing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) relating to these two proposed sales. While it is necessary to commence the presale information gathering process before finalizing the Five-Year OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012–2017 in order to conform to the schedule in the Proposed Program, this scoping and EIS process will be terminated in the event that Lease Sales 225 and 226 are not included in the Final Program. Pursuant to the regulations implementing the procedural provisions of the NEPA of 1969, as amended (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq. [1988]), BOEM will hold public scoping meetings to solicit information to assist in a determination of the significant issues to be addressed and their scope, and to identify mitigating measures and alternatives. This information will be used in the preparation of an EIS to evaluate the potential environmental effects of proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226. BOEM has planned five scoping meetings in April 2012 to provide opportunities for public participation and comment as part of the process for evaluating proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226. BOEM also will use and coordinate the NEPA public comment process to satisfy the requirement for public involvement under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470f), as provided for in 36 CFR 800.2(d)(3).

Throughout the scoping process, Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments and the general public have the opportunity to aid BOEM in determining the significant issues, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigating measures to be analyzed in the EIS, as well as to provide additional information. Possible alternatives for analysis may represent a range of levels of activities, including: (1) The proposed action (holding the Lease Sale); (2) taking no action (canceling or postponing the sale); (3) defining appropriate restrictions on oil and gas activities based on environmental resources that are present; and/or (4) defining temporal or spatial work windows to accommodate the existing use of OCS space important to other critical national missions. Additional alternatives developed through scoping and NEPA evaluation will be considered and may also be evaluated. BOEM will receive statements, oral and written, at the venues listed below. All persons wishing to speak will have the opportunity to do so. Time limits may be set on speakers to allow time for all speakers to participate. The following public scoping meetings are planned for proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226:

• Tuesday, April 3, 2012, Tallahassee, Florida: Tallahassee Community College, 444 Appleyard Drive, Tallahassee, Florida; at 1 p.m. EDT;

• Wednesday, April 4, 2012, Panama City Beach, Florida: Wyndham Bay Point Resort, 4114 Jan Cooley Drive, Panama City Beach, Florida; two meetings, the first beginning at 1 p.m. CDT and the second beginning at 6 p.m. CDT; • Thursday, April 5, 2012, Mobile, Alabama: Five Rivers—Alabama’s Delta Resource Center, 30945 Five Rivers Boulevard, Spanish Fort, Alabama; at 1 p.m. CDT; and

• Monday, April 9, 2012, New Orleans, Louisiana: BOEM, GOM OCS Region, 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana; at 1 p.m. CDT.

Procedures for submitting written comments via mail and electronically are also detailed below.

**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :**  Proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226 are tentatively scheduled for 2014 and 2016 under the Proposed Program. The previous lease sale in the EPA, Lease Sale 224, was held on March 19, 2008. The EIS that will be prepared subsequent to this scoping process will analyze an area in the EPA that was addressed in Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sale 224: Eastern Planning Area, Final Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement (OCS EIS/EA MMS 2007– 060), plus a 109,977-acre triangular area located immediately south of the Lease Sale 224 area. The area for proposed Lease Sales 225 and 226 covers approximately 657,905 acres in the EPA and is south of eastern Alabama and western Florida; the nearest point of land to the lease sale area is 125 miles north to Florida. The Call for Information and Nominations/Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS was published in the Federal Register on November 18, 2011. This Federal Register notice is not an announcement to hold the proposed lease sales, but it is a continuation of information gathering and an early step in the environmental review process required by NEPA. The comments received during the scoping meetings and public comment period will help form the content of the EIS and will be summarized in the presale documentation prepared prior to holding a lease sale.

Comments: In addition to, or in lieu of participation in the scoping meetings listed above, all interested parties, including Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments and the general public, may submit written comments on the scope of the EIS, significant issues that should be addressed, alternatives that should be considered, potential mitigating measures and the types of oil and gas activities of interest in the proposed lease sale area.

Written scoping comments may be submitted in one of the following two

ways:

1. In written form enclosed in an envelope labeled ‘‘Scoping for Proposed EPA Lease Sales 225 and 226’’ and mailed (or hand delivered) to Mr. Gary


### 16259 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 54 / Tuesday, March 20, 2012 / Notices

D. Goeke, Chief, Regional Assessment Section, Office of Environment (MS 5410), BOEM, GOM OCS Region, 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana 70123–2394; or

2. Electronically to the BOEM email address: boemegomeis@BOEM.gov

.

Petitions, although accepted, do not generally provide more weight or useful information than a single comment to assist in scoping. Please include your name and address as part of your submittal; BOEM does not consider anonymous comments. BOEM makes all comments, including the names and addresses of respondents, available for public review during regular business hours. Individual respondents may request that BOEM withhold their name and/or address from the public record; this request will be honored to the extent allowable by law. If you wish your name and/or address to be withheld, you must state your preference prominently at the beginning of your comment. All submissions from organizations or businesses and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses will be made available for public inspection in their entirety.

**DATES :**  Comments should be submitted no later than May 4, 2012 to the address or email address specified above.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  For information on the EIS, public scoping meetings, the submission of comments, or BOEM’s policies associated with this notice, please contact Mr. Gary D. Goeke, Chief, Regional Assessment Section, Office of Environment (MS 5410), BOEM, GOM OCS Region, 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70123–2394, telephone (504) 736–

3233.

Dated: March 14, 2012. Tommy P. Beaudreau, Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

[FR Doc. 2012–6724 Filed 3–19–12; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 4310–VH–P**

**DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR**

**Office of Surface Mining Reclamation**
**and Enforcement**

**Notice of Proposed Information Collection for 1029–0059** 

**AGENCY :**  Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.

**ACTION :**  Notice and request for

comments.

**SUMMARY :**  In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is announcing its intention to request approval for the collections of information for 30 CFR part 735—Grants for Program Development and Administration and Enforcement, 30 CFR part 885 — Grants for Certified States and Indian Tribes, and 30 CFR part 886—State and Tribal Reclamation Grants. This collection request has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. The information collection request describes the nature of the information collection and the expected burden and cost.

**DATES :**  OMB has up to 60 days to approve or disapprove the information collections but may respond after 30 days. Therefore, public comments should be submitted to OMB by April 19, 2012, in order to be assured of consideration.

**ADDRESSES :**  Please send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Department of the Interior Desk Officer, via email to
OIRA

_Docket@omb.eop.gov, or by facsimile to (202) 395–5806. Also, please send a copy of your comments to John Trelease, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 1951 Constitution Ave. NW., Room 203—SIB, Washington, DC 20240, by telefax to (202) 219–3276, or by email to jtrelease@osmre.gov.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  To receive a copy of the information collection request, contact John Trelease at (202) 208–2783, or electronically at jtrelease@osmre.gov. You may also review this collection on the Internet by going to http://www.reginfo.gov (Information Collection Review, Currently Under Review, Agency is Department of the Interior, DOI– OSMRE).

**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :**  The OMB regulations at 5 CFR part 1320, which implement provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–13), require that interested members of the public and affected agencies have an opportunity to comment on information collection and recordkeeping activities [see 5 CFR 1320.8(d)]. OSM has submitted a request to OMB to renew its approval of the collections of information contained in 30 CFR part 735—Grants for Program Development and Administration and Enforcement, 30 CFR part 886—State and Tribal Reclamation Grants, and 30 CFR part 885—Grants for Certified States and Indian Tribes. OSM is requesting a 3- year term of approval for each information collection activity.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Responses are required to receive a benefit of grant funding. The OMB control number for 30 CFR parts 735, 885, 886 and the corresponding forms OSM–47, OSM–49, and OSM–51 that require grant submittals are currently approved under OMB control number 1029–0059.

As required under 5 CFR 1320.8(d), a Federal Register notice soliciting comments on this collection of information was published on November 15, 2011 (76 FR 70753). No comments were received. This notice provides the public with an additional 30 days in which to comment on the following information collection activity:

Title: 30 CFR Parts 735, 885 and 886. OMB Control Number: 1029–0059. Summary: State and Tribal reclamation and regulatory authorities are requested to provide specific budget and program information as part of the grant application and reporting processes authorized by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

Bureau Form Numbers: OSM–47, OSM–49 and OSM–51.

Frequency of Collection: Once and annually.

Description of Respondents: State and Tribal reclamation and regulatory authorities.

Total Annual Responses: 136. Total Annual Burden Hours: 892 hours.

Send comments on the need for the collection of information for the performance of the functions of the agency; the accuracy of the agency’s burden estimates; ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information collection; and ways to minimize the information collection burden on respondents, such as use of automated means of collection of the information, to the addresses listed in

**ADDRESSES** . Please refer to OMB control number 1029–0059 in your correspondence.

Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment—including your personal identifying information—may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.