EPA Launches New Web Site for Regulatory Information

On February 18, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a new web site called Rulemaking Gateway located at http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/RuleGate.nsf/. EPA’s stated purpose in establishing the web site is to create transparency and give the public additional opportunity to participate in the agency’s rulemaking process. Information is limited to EPA’s “priority” rules.   The new web site can be used as a supplement to EPA’s Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda and Monthly Action List. It is worth bookmarking because if offers a quick and easy way to check the status of a particular priority rulemaking, especially on the front-end of the rulemaking process.

Gateway provides information on priority rules from pre-proposal through publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. EPA will begin posting information on a priority rulemaking after the agency’s Regulatory Policy Officer determines it is appropriate to start working on the regulation via a process known as “commencement approval,” which occurs once a month. Thus, a rulemaking may appear on the Gateway months or even years before a docket is opened on EPA’s Regulations.gov web site. EPA intends to update Gateway on a monthly basis as new information becomes available. According to EPA’s press release, the Agency plans to update notice of public meetings and other “[t]ime-sensitive information…on a daily basis.” Rulemakings will not remain on the Gateway forever. They will be removed one year after they are published in the Federal Register as a final rule or one year after they are published in the Federal Register as fully withdrawn. 

In addition to offering information on the status of a rulemaking as early as pre-proposal, Gateway provides additional search functionality. Priority rules can be searched by phases, e.g., pre-proposal, proposal, open for public comments, final rule published as well as access enforcement and compliance information. Rules can be searched by topic such as air, pesticides, toxic substances, waste, water, and general.    Finally, rules can be searched by effects. The categories of searchable effects on Gateway include: children’s health; energy supply, distribution, or use; environmental justice; federal government – other agencies; federalism; international; local governments; small businesses; small governments; small not-for-profit organizations; state governments; tribal governments; and unfunded mandates. EPA has established a discussion forum to solicit comments on gateway and also to encourage the public to suggest more effects and topics by submitting them via the Discussion Forum found at http://blog.epa.gov/rulegateway/.

EPA’s Gateway also offers a summary or, in EPA’s words, “a distilled ‘snapshot’” of a rule. Comprehensive information on a rule can still be found at EPA’s Regulations.gov web site located at http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html.

This article was authored by Gale Lea Rubrecht, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author, see here.