900.6—Coordination of permitting and related environmental reviews.
(a)
(1)
Upon receipt of a request for coordination, DOE, as the coordinator of all applicable Federal authorizations and related environmental reviews, and the permitting entities shall jointly determine the appropriate level of coordination required, and, where applicable, the appropriate permitting entity to be the lead agency for preparing NEPA compliance documents, including all documents required to support a final agency decision, and all other analyses used as the basis for all decisions on a proposed transmission facility under Federal law. Designation of the lead agency for preparing NEPA documents shall be in compliance with regulations issued by the Council on Environmental Quality at 40 CFR 1500et seq.
(2)
Non-Federal entities that have their own separate non-Federal permitting and environmental reviews may elect to participate in the coordination process under paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
(b)
(1)
DOE as the agency coordinating federal authorizations shall establish, maintain, and utilize, to the extent practicable and in compliance with Federal law, a single location to store and display (electronically if practicable) all of the information assembled in order to fulfill Federal obligations for preparing NEPA compliance documents and all other analyses required to comply with all environmental and cultural statutes and regulations under Federal law. This information shall be available to the applicant, all permitting entities, DOE, and all Indian tribes, multistate entities, and State agencies that have their own separate non-Federal permitting and environmental reviews.
(2)
DOE shall establish and maintain, to the extent practicable and in compliance with Federal law, a single location to store and display the information utilized by the permitting entities as the basis for their decisions on the proposed project under Federal law, including all environmental, cultural protection and natural resource protection statutes and regulations.
(3)
In coordinating the preparation of a single environmental review document, DOE will rely upon the permitting entities, as appropriate, to ensure compliance with all applicable requirements of Federal law.
(4)
The single environmental review document shall be made available to all permitting entities for making their agency decisions in order to ensure that each permitting entity's environmental review is in compliance with the statutory mandates and regulatory requirements applicable to action by that permitting entity.