Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 187 / Wednesday, September 28, 2005 / Notices 56647 

SAFEGUARDS: 

Computerized records are maintained 

in a controlled area accessible only to 

authorized personnel. Entry to these 

areas is restricted to those personnel 

with a valid requirement and 

authorization to enter. Physical entry is 

restricted by the use of lock, guards, and 

administrative procedures. Access to 

any specific record is based on the needto-know and the specific level of 

authorization granted to the user. 

Physical and electronic access is 

restricted to designated individuals 

having a need-to-know in the 

performance of official duties. Access to 

personal information is further 

restricted by the use of the Army 

Knowledge Online database (AKO) 

single sign-on and password 

authorization. 

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL: 

Disposition pending (until the 

National Archives and Records 

Administration has approved retention 

and disposition of these records, treat as 

permanent). 

SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS: 

Commander, Communication—

Electronics Life Cycle Management 

Command, ATTN: CE–LCMC SPO, Fort 

Monmouth, NJ 07703–5000. 

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE: 

Individuals seeking to determine 

whether information about themselves 

is contained in this system should 

address written inquiries to the 

appropriate administrative office of 

their employing agency. 

For verification purposes, individual 

should provide full name, SSN, 

sufficient details to permit locating 

pertinent records, and signature. 

RECORDS ACCESS PROCEDURE: 

Individuals seeking access to 

information about themselves contained 

in this system should address written 

inquiries to the appropriate 

administrative office of their employing 

agency. 

For verification purposes, individual 

should provide full name, SSN, 

sufficient details to permit locating 

pertinent records, and signature. 

CONTESTING RECORDS PROCEDURES: 

The Army’s rules for accessing 

records, and for contesting contents and 

appealing initial agency determinations 

are contained in Army Regulation 340–

21; 32 CFR part 505; or may be obtained 

from the system manager. 

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES: 

Individuals, their employers, travel 

documentation, and service providers. 

EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM: 

None. 

[FR Doc. 05–19326 Filed 9–27–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 5001–06–M 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Notice of Intent To Prepare a 

Programmatic Environmental Impact 

Statement, Amend Relevant Agency 

Land Use Plans, Conduct Public 

Scoping Meetings, and Notice of 

Floodplain and Wetlands Involvement 

AGENCIES: Office of Electricity Delivery 

and Energy Reliability, Department of 

Energy (DOE) and the Bureau of Land 

Management (BLM), Department of the 

Interior (DOI). 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a 

programmatic environmental impact 

statement, amend relevant agency land 

use plans, conduct public scoping 

meetings, and notice of floodplain and 

wetlands involvement. 

SUMMARY: Section 368 of the Energy 

Policy Act of 2005 (the Act), Public Law 

109–58 (H.R. 6), enacted August 8, 2005, 

directs the Secretaries of Agriculture, 

Commerce, Defense, Energy, and the 

Interior (the Agencies) to designate 

under their respective authorities 

corridors on Federal land in the 11 

Western States for oil, gas and hydrogen 

pipelines and electricity transmission 

and distribution facilities (energy 

corridors). The Agencies have 

determined that designating corridors as 

required by Section 368 of the Act 

constitutes a major Federal action which 

may have a significant impact upon the 

environment within the meaning of the 

National Environmental Policy Act of 

1969 (NEPA). For this reason, the 

Agencies intend to prepare a 

programmatic environmental impact 

statement (PEIS) entitled, ‘‘Designation 

of Energy Corridors on Federal Land in 

the 11 Western States’’ (DOE/EIS–0386) 

to address the environmental impacts 

from the proposed action and the range 

of reasonable alternatives. DOE and 

BLM will be co-lead agencies for this 

effort, with the Department of 

Agriculture’s Forest Service (FS) 

participating as a cooperating agency. 

The purpose of this Notice of Intent 

is to inform the public about the 

proposed action, announce plans to 

conduct 11 public scoping meetings, 

invite public participation in the 

scoping process, and solicit public 

comments for consideration in 

establishing the scope and content of 

the PEIS. Because the proposed action 

may involve actions in a floodplain or 

wetland, the draft PEIS will include a 

floodplain and wetlands assessment and 

the final PEIS or Record of Decision will 

include a floodplain statement of 

findings. 

The Agencies will prepare the PEIS in 

accordance with NEPA, the Council on 

Environmental Quality (CEQ) 

regulations, 40 CFR 1500–1508, DOE’s 

regulations developed pursuant to 

NEPA, 10 CFR 1021, BLM’s planning 

regulations 43 CFR 1600 and applicable 

FS planning regulations to amend land 

use plans. 

DATES: The Agencies invite interested 

agencies, states, organizations, Native 

American tribes, and members of the 

public to submit comments or 

suggestions to assist in identifying 

significant environmental issues and in 

determining the scope of this PEIS. The 

public scoping period starts with the 

publication of this notice in the Federal 

Register and will continue until 

November 28, 2005. Written and oral 

comments will be given equal weight, 

and the Agencies will consider all 

comments received or postmarked by 

November 28, 2005 in defining the 

scope of this PEIS. Comments received 

or postmarked after that date will be 

considered to the extent practicable. 

Dates for the public scoping meetings 

are: 

1. October 25, 2005, Denver, Colorado 

2. October 26, 2005, Albuquerque, New 

Mexico 

3. October 26, 2005, Salt Lake City, Utah 

4. October 27, 2005, Cheyenne, 

Wyoming 

5. October 27, 2005, Helena, Montana 

6. November 1, 2005, Boise, Idaho 

7. November 1, 2005, Sacramento, 

California 

8. November 2, 2005, Las Vegas, Nevada 

9. November 2, 2005, Portland, Oregon 

10. November 3, 2005, Phoenix, Arizona 

11. November 3, 2005, Seattle, 

Washington 

The Agencies will announce the times 

and locations of the public meetings 

through the local media, newsletters, 

and the project Web site (http:// 

corridoreis.anl.gov) at least 15 days 

prior to the meeting. 

Requests to speak at a public scoping 

meeting(s) should be received by Julia 

Souder at the addresses indicated below 

on or before October 18, 2005. Requests 

to speak may also be made at the time 

of registration for the scoping 

meeting(s). However, persons who 

submitted advance requests to speak 

will be given priority if time should be 

limited during the meetings. 

ADDRESSES: Comments or suggestions 

on the scope of the PEIS and requests to 

56648 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 187 / Wednesday, September 28, 2005 / Notices 

speak at the scoping meeting(s) should 

be sent to: Julia Souder by mail at U.S. 

Department of Energy, Office of 

Electricity Delivery and Energy 

Reliability, 1000 Independence Avenue, 

SW., Washington, DC 20585; by 

facsimile at (202) 586–1472 or phone at 

(202) 586–9052. 

Please note that regular postal mail to 

DOE tends to be delayed because of 

anthrax screening. In order to avoid 

these delays, if you wish to comment or 

request to speak at the scoping 

meeting(s) by mail, we suggest that your 

submission be sent by using overnight 

service, or that your letter first be sent 

to us by facsimile or electronic mail, 

and then followed by regular mailing of 

the original documents. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

information on the proposed project or 

to receive a copy of the Draft PEIS when 

it is issued, contact Julia Souder by any 

of the means indicated in the ADDRESSES

section of this notice. A complete 

description of the proposed action also 

may be found on the project Web site at 

http://corridoreis.anl.gov. 

For general information on the DOE 

NEPA process please contact: Carol M. 

Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA 

Policy and Compliance (EH–42), U.S. 

Department of Energy, 1000 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20585–0119, Phone: 

202–586–4600; or leave a message at 1–

800–472–2756; Facsimile: 202–586–

7031. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background and Need for Agency 

Action 

Section 368 of the Act, entitled 

‘‘Energy Right-of-Way Corridors on 

Federal Land,’’ and specifically 

subsection 368(d) require the Agencies 

to designate energy corridors, taking 

into account the ‘‘need for upgraded and 

new electricity transmission and 

distribution facilities’’ in order to 

‘‘improve reliability,’’ ‘‘relieve 

congestion,’’ and ‘‘enhance the 

capability of the national grid to deliver 

electricity.’’ See Electricity 

Modernization Act, Pub. L. 109–58 (H.R. 

6) section 368(d)(1)–(3). Section 368 

applies only to Federal lands. 

Specifically, Section 368 requires the 

Agencies to cooperate using their 

respective authorities to (1) ‘‘designate 

corridors for oil, gas, and hydrogen 

pipelines and electricity transmission 

and distribution facilities on Federal 

land in the eleven contiguous Western 

States (as defined in Section 103(o) of 

the Federal Land Policy and 

Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 

1702(o)); (2) perform any environmental 

reviews that may be required to 

complete the designations of such 

corridors; and (3) incorporate the 

designated corridors into the relevant 

agency land use and resource 

management plans or equivalent plans’’. 

See Pub. L. 109–59 § 368(a)(1)–(3). 

Section 368 divides the Agencies’

schedules for designating transmission 

corridors on public lands into two 

groups: (1) ‘‘Western States’’, consisting 

of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, 

Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, 

Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; and 

(2) all other states. This PEIS relates 

solely to corridors in the Western States. 

Proposed Action and Alternatives 

The Proposed Action in this PEIS is 

to designate corridors on Federal land in 

the eleven Western States for oil, gas 

and hydrogen pipelines and electricity 

transmission and distribution facilities. 

Based upon the information and 

analyses developed in this PEIS, each 

Agency would amend its respective 

land use plans by designating a series of 

energy corridors effective upon signing 

of the Record(s) of Decision. 

No Action Alternative 

Under the No Action alternative, no 

new energy corridors would be 

designated through this coordinated 

approach. The No Action alternative 

will identify the environmental impacts 

associated with each of the Agencies 

continuing to designate energy corridors 

through use of their present practices. 

These practices would include the 

application of local planning criteria by 

each regional land management office. 

Increased Utilization Alternative 

Under the Increased Utilization 

alternative, the Agencies will assess the 

environmental impacts associated with 

increasing the capacity of existing 

energy corridors through the application 

of new technologies and/or operational 

techniques. This alternative will assesss 

the impacts of developing multiple 

projects within existing corridors and 

rights-of-way and the application of new 

technologies to increase the energy 

capacities of existing facilities within 

those corridors. 

New Corridor Alternative 

Under the New Corridor alternative, 

the Agencies will assess the impacts 

associated with designating new energy 

corridors on Federal land. A 

preliminary set of new corridors will be 

identified through information obtained 

through scoping as well as information 

from the energy transport industry 

including, but not limited to: The 

Western Utility Group; the Seams 

Steering Group—Western 

Interconnection; Colorado Coordinating 

Planning Group; the Northwest 

Transmission Assessment Committee; 

the Southwest Area Transmission 

Study; the Southwest Transmission 

Expansion Plan; and the Rocky 

Mountain Area Transmission Study. 

The scoping process will afford other 

stakeholders such as environmental 

groups, counties, states, Native 

American tribes, and interested citizens 

an opportunity to propose new 

corridors. The Agencies will use this 

information to identify new energy 

corridors that will be analyzed in the 

PEIS. 

Optimization Criteria Alternative 

Under the Optimization Criteria 

alternative, the Agencies will assess the 

impacts of new energy corridors that 

will be identified through a combination 

of new and existing corridors based on 

a set of criteria and strategies that 

incorporate environmental concerns, 

projected supply and demand, network 

efficiencies, landscape features, the 

availability of new technologies, and 

costs. 

The Agencies will consider any 

additional reasonable alternatives that 

result from comments received in 

response to the scoping process 

described in this notice. 

Identification of Environmental Issues 

Note that environmental issues 

identified should be related to: 

Restriction of conflicting uses within 

the corridors, adequacy of potential plan 

direction within the corridors, any 

identifiable environmental concerns 

within the potential corridors. Any 

corridor designation, and subsequent 

incorporation into an agencies land use 

plan by this plan amendment process 

does not, itself, authorize project 

activities. Any new proposed project 

activities, such as construction of a new 

pipeline or electric transmission line or 

retrofitting utilities within an existing 

corridor, would be analyzed in 

subsequent NEPA analyses which 

would also involve public notice and 

comment. This PEIS is for corridor 

designation only. 

The purpose of this notice is to solicit 

comments and suggestions for 

consideration in the preparation of the 

PEIS. As background for public 

comment, this notice contains a list of 

potential environmental issues that the 

Agencies have tentatively identified for 

analysis. This list is not intended to be 

all-inclusive or to imply any 

predetermination of impacts. Following 

is a preliminary list of issues that may 

be analyzed in the PEIS: 

Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 187 / Wednesday, September 28, 2005 / Notices 56649 

(1) Socioeconomic and recreational 

impacts of development of the land 

tracts and their subsequent uses; 

(2) Impacts on protected, threatened, 

endangered, or sensitive species of 

animals or plants, or their critical 

habitats; 

(3) Impacts on floodplains and 

wetlands; 

(4) Impacts on archaeological, 

cultural, or historic resources; 

(5) Impacts on human health and 

safety; 

(6) Impacts on existing and future 

land uses; 

(7) Visual impacts; and 

(8) Disproportionately high and 

adverse impacts on minority and lowincome populations, also known as 

environmental justice considerations. 

Scoping Process 

Interested parties are invited to 

participate in the scoping process, both 

to refine the preliminary alternatives 

and environmental issues to be analyzed 

in depth and to eliminate from detailed 

study those alternatives and 

environmental issues that are not 

feasible or pertinent. The scoping 

process is intended to involve all 

interested agencies (Federal, State, 

county, and local), public interest 

groups, Native American tribes, 

businesses, and members of the public. 

Public scoping meetings will be held as 

indicated above under the DATES and 

ADDRESSES sections. These scoping 

meetings will be informal. The 

presiding officer will establish only 

those procedures needed to ensure that 

everyone who wishes to speak has a 

chance to do so and that the Agencies 

understand all issues and comments. 

Speakers will be allocated 

approximately 5 minutes for their oral 

statements. Depending upon the number 

of persons wishing to speak, the 

presiding officer may allow longer times 

for representatives of organizations. 

Consequently, persons wishing to speak 

on behalf of an organization should 

identify that organization in their 

request to speak. Persons who have not 

submitted a request to speak in advance 

may register to speak at the scoping 

meeting(s), but advance requests are 

encouraged. Meetings will begin at the 

times specified and will continue until 

all those present who wish to 

participate have had an opportunity to 

do so. Should any speaker desire to 

provide for the record further 

information that cannot be presented 

within the designated time, such 

additional information may be 

submitted in writing by the date listed 

in the DATES section. 

Oral, written, and electronic (i.e., by 

facsimile or by e-mail) comments will 

be impartially considered and given 

equal weight by the Agencies. 

A complete transcript of the public 

scoping meetings will be retained by the 

Agencies and made available to the 

public for review on the DOE Web site 

at http://www.electricity.doe.gov, on the 

project Web site at http:// 

corridoreis.anl.gov, and during business 

hours at the Department of Energy, 

Freedom of Information Reading Room, 

Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence 

Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. 

Draft PEIS Schedule and Availability 

The Draft PEIS is scheduled to be 

issued in early spring 2006. The 

availability of the Draft PEIS and dates 

for public hearings soliciting comments 

on it will be announced in the Federal 

Register and local media. Comments on 

the Draft PEIS will be considered in 

preparing the Final PEIS. 

Those interested parties who do not 

wish to submit comments at this time, 

but who would like to receive a copy of 

the Draft PEIS and other project 

materials, please contact Julia Souder as 

provided in the ADDRESSES section of 

this notice. 

Tom Lonnie, 

Assistant Director, Minerals, Realty and 

Resource Protection, Bureau of Land 

Management. 

John Spitaleri Shaw, 

Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety 

and Health, Department of Energy. 

[FR Doc. 05–19375 Filed 9–27–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Environmental Impact Statement: Site 

Selection for the Expansion of the 

Strategic Petroleum Reserve 

AGENCY: Department of Energy (DOE). 

ACTION: Notice to extend the public 

scoping period and reschedule public 

scoping meetings. 

SUMMARY: Due to the extraordinary 

circumstances created by Hurricane 

Katrina in the region where the 

proposed action and public scoping 

meetings will take place, DOE has 

extended the public scoping period and 

revised the dates and locations of the 

public scoping meetings originally 

announced in the Notice of Intent to 

Prepare an Environmental Impact 

Statement (70 FR 52088; September 1, 

2005). 

DATES:

Extended: The public scoping period 

is extended by 2 weeks to October 28, 

2005. 

Cancelled: The public scoping 

meeting at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 

originally scheduled on October 4, 2005, 

is cancelled. 

Cancelled: The public scoping 

meeting at Pascagoula, Mississippi, 

originally scheduled on October 5, 2005, 

is cancelled. 

Rescheduled: The public scoping 

meeting at Houma, Louisiana, originally 

scheduled on October 6, 2005 has been 

rescheduled to October 19, 2005, at the 

Ramada Inn, 1400 West Tunnel 

Boulevard, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

Telephone: (985) 879–4871. 

No Change to Original Schedule: The 

public scoping meeting at Lake Jackson, 

Texas, will take place as originally 

scheduled on October 11, 2005, 7 p.m. 

to 9 p.m. at the Cherotel Brazosport 

Hotel and Conference Center, 925 Hwy 

332. Telephone: (979) 297–1161. 

New Public Scoping Meeting: A public 

scoping meeting will be held at Jackson, 

Mississippi, on October 18, 2005, 7 p.m. 

to 9 p.m. at the Jackson Marriott 

Downtown, 200 East Amite Street. 

Telephone: (601) 969–5100. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Comments or suggestions on the scope 

and content of the EIS and requests to 

speak at the scoping meetings should be 

directed to Donald Silawsky, Office of 

Petroleum Reserves (FE–47), U.S. 

Department of Energy, 1000 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20585–0301; telephone: 

(202) 586–1892; fax: (202) 586–4446; or 

electronic mail at 

Donald.Silawsky@hq.doe.gov. 

Envelopes and the subject line of emails or faxes should be labeled 

‘‘Scoping for the SPR EIS.’’ Please note 

that conventional mail to DOE may be 

delayed by anthrax screening. 

For information on the proposed 

project or to receive a copy of the Draft 

EIS when it is issued, contact Donald 

Silawsky by any of the means listed 

above. Additional information may also 

be found on the DOE Fossil Energy 

Strategic Petroleum Reserve proposed 

expansion Web site at http:// 

fossil.energy.gov/news/techlines/2005/ 

tl_spr_noi.html. 

For information on the DOE NEPA 

process, contact Carol M. Borgstrom, 

Director, Office of NEPA Policy and 

Compliance (EH–42), U.S. Department 

of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, 

SW., Washington, DC 20585–0119; 

telephone: (202) 586–4600; fax: (202) 

586–7031; or leave a toll-free message 

at: (800) 472–2756.