On July 16, 2017, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (“CRE”) filed Comments on Technical Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing—Acoustic Threshold Levels for Onset of Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. 82 FR 24950 (May 31, 2017), https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-05-31/pdf/2017-11035.pdf.
CRE’s comments included the following Executive Summary:
“NMFS’ Use of the Acoustic Guidance Conflicts with Section 10 of Executive Order 13795 for the following and other reasons.
First, the Acoustic Guidance is unnecessary to ensure that oil and gas seismic is safe and environmentally responsible.
Second, the Acoustic Guidance will discourage energy exploration and production.
Third, the Acoustic Guidance has many other flaws that preclude its use. These flaws include
- violations of OMBs Peer Review Bulletin;
- violations of the Information Quality Act (“IQA”) Guidelines;
- violations of President Trump’s Executive Order 13771 on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs;
- violations of OMB’s Guidance Document Bulletin and implementing Memoranda; and
- violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (“MMPA”) requirement that all mitigation requirements be “practicable.”
NMFS cannot require use of the Acoustic Guidance for these and other reasons, including the fact that NMFS does not have an OMB-approved Information collection Request (“ICR’) for it.
Consequently, NMFS should publicly and promptly state that no one has to use the Acoustic Guidance.”
