The Regulatory Flexibility Agenda normally includes:

E. How Are Regulatory Plan and Regulatory Flexibility Agenda Organized?

The Regulatory Plan is organized according to the current stage of development. The stages are:

1. Prerulemaking-Prerulemaking actions are generally intended to determine whether EPA should

initiate rulemaking. Prerulemakings may include anything that influences or leads to rulemaking, such as advance notices of proposed rulemaking (ANPRMs), significant studies or analyses of the possible need for regulatory action, announcement of reviews of existing regulations required under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, requests for public comment on the need for regulatory action, or important preregulatory policy proposals.

2. Proposed Rule-This section includes EPA rulemaking actions that are within a year of proposal

(publication of Notices of Proposed Rulemakings (NPRMs)).

3. Final Rule-This section includes rules that will be issued as a final rule within a year.

We have organized the Regulatory Flexibility Agenda as follows:

First, into divisions based on the law that would authorize a particular action. A "General" division which includes crosscutting actions, such as rules authorized by multiple statutes and general acquisition rules precedes the media statutes (Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), etc.)

Second, by the current stage of development. The stages are:

1. Prerulemaking-Prerulemaking actions are generally intended to determine whether EPA should initiate rulemaking. Prerulemakings may include anything that influences or leads to rulemaking, such as advance notices of proposed rulemaking (ANPRMs), significant studies or analyses of the possible need for regulatory action, announcement of reviews of existing regulations required under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, requests for public comment on the need for regulatory action, or important preregulatory policy proposals.

2. Proposed Rule-This section includes EPA rulemaking actions that are within a year of proposal (publication of Notices of Proposed Rulemakings (NPRMs)).

3. Final Rule-This section includes rules that will be issued as a final rule within a year.

4. Long-Term Actions-This section includes rulemakings for which the next scheduled regulatory action is after October 2009.

5. Completed Actions-This section contains actions that have been promulgated and published in the Federal Register since publication of the spring 2008 agenda. It also includes actions that we are no longer considering. If an action appears in the completed section, it will not appear in future agendas unless we decide to initiate action again, in which case it will appear as a new entry. EPA also announces the results of our Regulatory Flexibility Act section 610 reviews in this section of the Agenda.

F. What Information Is in the Regulatory Flexibility Agenda, the E-Agenda, and the Regulatory

Plan?

Regulatory Flexibility Agenda entries include:

Sequence Number, RIN, Title, Description, Statutory Authority, Section 610 Review, if applicable, Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required, Schedule, Contact Person.

E-Agenda entries include:

Title: Titles for new entries (those that have not appeared in previous agendas) are preceded by a bullet (•). The notation "Section 610 Review" follows the title if we are reviewing the rule as part of our periodic review of existing rules under section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) (5 U.S.C. 610).

Priority: Entries are placed into one of five categories described below. OMB reviews all significant rules including both of the first two categories, "economically significant" and "other significant."

Economically Significant: Under E.O. 12866, a rulemaking action that may have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, or tribal governments or communities.

Other Significant: A rulemaking that is not economically significant but is considered significant for other reasons. This category includes rules that may:

1. Create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an action taken or planned by another agency;

2. Materially alter the budgetary impact of entitlements, grants, user fees, or loan programs, or the rights and obligations of recipients; or

3. Raise novel legal or policy issues arising out of legal mandates, the President's priorities, or the principles in Executive Order 12866.

Substantive, Nonsignificant: A rulemaking that has substantive impacts but is not Significant, Routine and Frequent, or Informational/Administrative/Other.

Routine and Frequent: A rulemaking that is a specific case of a recurring application of a regulatory program in the Code of Federal Regulations (e.g., certain State Implementation Plans, National Priority List updates, Significant New Use Rules, State Hazardous Waste Management Program actions, and Tolerance Exemptions). If an action that would normally be classified Routine and Frequent is reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget under E.O. 12866, then we would classify the action as either "Economically Significant" or "Other Significant."

Informational/Administrative/Other: An action that is primarily informational or pertains to an action outside the scope of E.O. 12866.

Also, if we believe that a rule may be "major" as defined in the Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 801, et seq.) because it is likely to result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or meets other criteria specified in this law, we indicate this under the "Priority" heading with the statement "Major under 5 U.S.C. 801."

Legal Authority: The sections of the United States Code (U.S.C.), Public Law (P.L.), Executive Order (E.O.), or common name of the law that authorizes the regulatory action.

CFR Citation: The sections of the Code of Federal Regulations that would be affected by the action.

Legal Deadline: An indication of whether the rule is subject to a statutory or judicial deadline, the date of that deadline, and whether the deadline pertains to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, a Final Action, or some other action.

Abstract: A brief description of the problem the action will address.

Timetable: The dates (and citations) that documents for this action were published in the Federal Register and, where possible, a projected date for the next step. Projected publication dates frequently change during the course of developing an action. The projections in the agenda are our best estimates as of the date we submit the agenda for publication. For some entries, the timetable indicates that the date of the next action is "to be determined."

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: Indicates whether EPA has prepared or anticipates that it will be preparing a regulatory flexibility analysis under section 603 or 604 of the RFA. Generally, such an analysis is required for proposed or final rules subject to the RFA that EPA believes may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Small Entities Affected: Indicates whether we expect the rule to have any effect on small businesses, small governments, or small nonprofit organizations.

Government Levels Affected: Indicates whether we expect the rule to have any effect on levels of government and, if so, whether the governments are State, local, tribal, or Federal.

Federalism Implications: Indicates whether the action is expected to have substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship between the National Government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government.

Unfunded Mandates: Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act generally requires an assessment of anticipated costs and benefits if a rule includes a mandate that may result in expenditures of more than $100 million in any one year by State, local, and tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the private sector. If we expect to exceed this $100 million threshold, we note it in this section.

Energy Impacts: Indicates whether the action is a significant energy action under E.O. 13211.

International Trade Impacts: Indicates whether the action is likely to have international trade or investment effects, or otherwise be of international interest.

Agency Contact: The name, address, phone number, and e-mail address, if available, of a person who is knowledgeable about the regulation.

SAN Number: An identification number that EPA uses to track rulemakings and other actions under development.

URLs: For some of our actions we include the Internet addresses for: Reading copies of rulemaking documents; submitting comments on proposals; and getting more information about the rulemaking and the program of which it is a part. (Note: To submit comments on proposals, you can go to our electronic docket which is at: www.regulations.gov. Once there, follow the online instructions to access the docket and submit comments. A Docket identification (ID) number will assist in the search for materials. We include this number in the additional information section of many of the agenda entries that have already been proposed.)

RIN: The Regulatory Identifier Number is used by OMB to identify and track rulemakings. The first four digits of the RIN stand for the EPA office with lead responsibility for developing the action.

Regulatory Plan entries include all categories of information included in E-Agenda entries, plus:

Sequence Number, Statement of Need, Summary of Legal Basis, Alternatives, Anticipated Costs and Benefits, and Risks.

G. New Monthly Update Tool: The Action Initiation List

Continuing to build on EPA's tradition of open, transparent rulemaking, last April we started posting each month a list of the regulations which had been approved for development. We call this list the Action Initiation List. You can see the current list at http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/search/ail.html where you will also find information about how to get an e-mail notification when a new list is posted.

H. What Other Tools for Finding Out About EPA Rules and Policies Are Available at Reginfo.gov, Regulations.gov, and EPA.gov?

1. Regulatory Agenda Search Engines

If you want to quickly identify the regulation(s) of interest to you, we recommend that you go to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain and use the E-Agenda database and its powerful search, and advanced search features. With advanced searches you can specify the values you are interested in for up to 21 Agenda data fields. This database also lets you access information from previous versions of the Agenda and Plan.

2. Public Dockets

When EPA publishes either an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) or a NPRM in the Federal Register, the Agency may establish a docket to accumulate materials throughout the development process for that rulemaking. The docket serves as the repository for the collection of documents or information related to a particular Agency action or activity. EPA most commonly uses dockets for rulemaking actions, but dockets may also be used for Regulatory Flexibility Act section 610 reviews of rules with significant impacts on a substantial number of small entities and various non-rulemaking activities, such as Federal Register documents seeking public comments on draft guidance, policy statements, information collection requests under the Paperwork Reduction Act, and other non-rule activities. If there is a docket on a particular action, information about the location will be in that action's Agenda entry. EPA opens an electronic docket for each of our proposed rules by the time we publish them in the Federal Register. All of our electronic dockets are housed at www.regulations.gov where you can review the proposed rule, supporting documents, and public comments, and where you may electronically submit your own comments and make use of the bookmarking and notification features.

3. Subject Matter EPA Web sites

More than 100 of the actions listed in the agenda include a URL that provides additional information about the program that the action belongs to.

4. Listservers

If you want to get automatic e-mails about areas of particular interest, we maintain 12 listservers including:

a. Air

b. Water

c. Wastes and emergency response

d. Pesticides

e. Toxic substances

f. Right-to-know and toxic release inventory

g. Environmental impacts

h. Endangered species

i. Meetings

j. The Science Advisory Board

k. Daily full-text notices with page numbers, and

l. General information.

For more information and to subscribe via our FR Web site, visit:

www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/subscribe.htm. If you have e-mail without full Internet access, please send an e-mail to envsubset@epa.gov to request instructions for subscribing to the EPA Federal Register listservers.

I. What Special Attention Do We Give to the Impacts of Rules on Small Businesses, Small

Governments, and Small Nonprofit Organizations?

For each of our rulemakings, we consider whether there will be any adverse impact on any small entity. We attempt to fit the regulatory requirements, to the extent feasible, to the scale of the businesses, organizations, and governmental jurisdictions subject to the regulation. Under RFA/SBREFA (the Regulatory Flexibility Act as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act), the Agency must prepare a formal analysis of the potential negative impacts on small entities, convene a Small Business Advocacy Review Panel (proposed rule stage), and prepare a Small Entity Compliance Guide (final rule stage) unless the Agency certifies a rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. For more detailed information about the Agency's policy and practice with respect to implementing RFA/SBREFA, please visit the RFA/SBREFA Web site at http://www.epa.gov/sbrefa/. You may search http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaAdvancedSearch to find a list of EPA's entries for which a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is required or for a list of EPA's entries that may affect small entities, but which we do not expect will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of them.

Section 610 of the RFA requires that an agency review, within 10 years of promulgation, each rule that has or will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities (SEIOSNOSE). EPA has three rules under 610 review in 2008.

EPA undertakes section 610 reviews to decide whether the agency should continue a rule unchanged, amend it, or withdraw it. EPA announced these three 610 reviews in the "Prerule" section of the spring 2008 Agenda. We encouraged small entities to provide comments on the need to change these rules, and in particular, how the rules could be made clearer, more effective, or if there is need to remove conflicting or overlapping requirements with other Federal or State regulations. More information on the results of each of these reviews is available in the abstract section of each individual 610 review Agenda entry.

J. Thank You for Collaborating With Us.

Finally, we would like to thank those of you who choose to join with us in solving the complex issues involved in protecting human health and the environment. Collaborative efforts such as EPA's open rulemaking process are a proven tool for solving the environmental problems we face and the regulatory agenda is an important part of that process.

Dated: August 29, 2008.

NAME: Louise P. Wise,

Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation.