Notice2022-17993
Request for Information To Support the Development of a Strategic Plan on Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
August 22, 2022
Issuing agencies
Management and Budget Office
Abstract
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)--on behalf of the co-chairs of the Interagency Policy Working Group on Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions (Working Group), the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and Department of Commerce (DOC)--requests information and comments on questions posed by the Working Group to help inform the development of Government-wide natural capital accounts and standardized environmental-economic statistics. The Working Group has developed a draft Strategic Plan that recommends short- and long-term strategic goals, as well as objectives and proposed strategies to achieve a routinely produced set of Government-wide natural capital accounts and standardized environmental-economic statistics that complement and operate in alignment with core national economic accounts and statistics. To support the Strategic Plan, OMB seeks information on likely and potential applications for U.S. natural capital accounts, established statistics and accounts that would strengthen the U.S. system, relevant external factors that may affect implementation of the Strategic Plan, and relevant ancillary or indirect consequences of developing natural capital accounts or associated statistics.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 161 (Monday, August 22, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 161 (Monday, August 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51450-51452]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-17993]
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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Request for Information To Support the Development of a Strategic
Plan on Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions
AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget.
ACTION: Request for Information (RFI).
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SUMMARY: The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB)--on
behalf of the co-chairs of the Interagency Policy Working Group on
Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions (Working Group), the
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and Department of
Commerce (DOC)--requests information and comments on questions posed by
the Working Group to help inform the development of Government-wide
natural capital accounts and standardized environmental-economic
statistics. The Working Group has developed a draft Strategic Plan that
recommends short- and long-term strategic goals, as well as objectives
and proposed strategies to achieve a routinely produced set of
Government-wide natural capital accounts and standardized
environmental-economic statistics that complement and operate in
alignment with core national economic accounts and statistics. To
support the Strategic Plan, OMB seeks information on likely and
potential applications for U.S. natural capital accounts, established
statistics and accounts that would strengthen the U.S. system, relevant
external factors that may affect implementation of the Strategic Plan,
and relevant ancillary or indirect consequences of developing natural
capital accounts or associated statistics.
DATES: Interested persons and organizations are invited to submit
comments by October 21, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments through <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>--a Federal E-
Government website that allows the public to find, review, and submit
comments on documents that agencies
[[Page 51451]]
have published in the Federal Register and that are open for comment.
Enter ``OMB-2022-0009'' (in quotes) in the search box and follow the
instructions for submitting comments. Please include the Docket ID
(OMB-2022-0009) and the phrase ``RFI-Natural Capital'' at the beginning
of your comments. Please also indicate which questions from the
INFORMATION REQUESTED section of this notice is addressed in your
comments.
Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available
to the public and subject to disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act. For this reason, please do not include in your
comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive
personal information or proprietary information. If you send an email
comment, your email address will be automatically captured and included
as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket; however,
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> does include the option of commenting anonymously.
Please note that responses to this public comment request containing
any routine notice about the confidentiality of the communication will
be treated as public comments that may be made available to the public
notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.
Electronic Availability: Federal Register notices are available
electronically at <a href="http://www.federalregister.gov/">www.federalregister.gov/</a>. The draft Strategic Plan is
available at <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Natural-Capital-Accounting-Strategy.pdf">https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Natural-Capital-Accounting-Strategy.pdf</a>.
Public Review Procedure: All comments and proposals received in
response to this notice will be available for public inspection.
Instructions
Response to this RFI is voluntary. Each responding entity
(individual or organization) is requested to submit only one response.
OMB welcomes any responses to inform and guide the work of OMB and the
Working Group. Please feel free to respond to one or as many prompts as
you choose. Submission should use 12-point or larger font, with a page
number provided on each page. Respondents are encouraged, though not
required, to include the name of the person(s) or organization(s)
filing the comment; the respondent type (e.g., academic, advocacy,
professional society, community-based organization, industry, trainee/
student, member of the public, government, other); and the respondent's
role in the organization (e.g., researcher, faculty, student, program
manager, journalist). For comments containing references, studies,
research, and other empirical data that are not widely published,
respondents are encouraged to include copies or electronic links of the
referenced materials, in a machine-readable format to the degree
possible. No business proprietary information, copyrighted information,
or sensitive personally identifiable information should be submitted in
response to this RFI. Please be aware that comments submitted in
response to this RFI may be released publicly.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information, contact:
Andrew Stawasz, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC
20503, Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f0be91848582919cb391809984919cb193939f859e84999e97b09f9d92de959f80de979f86"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0a446b7e7f786b66496b7a637e6b664b6969657f647e63646d4a656768246f657a246d657c">[email protected]</span></a>, Telephone: (202)
881-7051.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: Existing national economic accounts data for the United
States--the organized data describing the U.S. economy, often
summarized as Gross Domestic Product (GDP)--provide an incomplete view
of the Nation's environmental and natural assets,\1\ and the changing
value of these important assets remains disconnected from broader
economic statistics. As a result, while the Federal statistical system
generally reflects how many economic sectors interact, it does not
reflect how the environment affects and responds to economic sectors
and vice versa.
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\1\ Environmental or natural assets are durable physical or
biological elements of nature that persist through time to
contribute to current or future economic production, human
enjoyment, or other services people value.
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Natural capital or natural assets, the environmental or ecosystem
services they generate, and expenditures to secure and protect nature
are foundational elements of economic progress and growth, future
opportunity, and sustainable development. Measuring natural assets and
maintaining statistical series--that is, conducting repeated
measurement over time that relates the environment with the economy--
can inform planning tools for the American economy, contributing to
goals like job creation and international competitiveness. The
international community has demonstrated a growing interest in rapidly
developing natural capital accounting methodologies, and the private
sector has shown a growing demand for natural capital data to reduce
uncertainty and ensure competitiveness. Therefore, there is demand for
U.S. Federal leadership to develop natural capital accounts and
standardized environmental-economic statistics to provide a centralized
domestic framework and to promote international norms.
On Earth Day 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced an
initiative to develop and maintain the first U.S. natural capital
accounts and standardized environmental-economic statistics. An
interagency Working Group--co-chaired by OMB, OSTP, and DOC, with
participation from the Council of Economic Advisors, Council on
Environmental Quality, Domestic Climate Policy Office, National
Economic Council, National Security Council, Departments of
Agriculture, Interior, Labor, State, and Treasury, Environmental
Protection Agency, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration--
developed a strategy for producing natural capital accounts that work
within the U.S. standard national accounting system. These natural
capital accounts would be able to measure the economic value that
natural assets provide to society.
The Working Group has developed a Strategic Plan divided into five
main sections:
(1) The Need for a System of Statistics for Environmental-Economic
Decisions details how the development of natural capital accounts and
standardized environmental-economic statistics are expected to
contribute to sustainable development of the U.S. macro-economy;
encourage more informed Federal decision-making; increase the
competitiveness of American firms; and support enhanced resilience of
states, communities, territories, and tribes.
(2) Renewing U.S. Leadership and Building on Strength outlines the
importance of U.S. leadership in environmental-economic statistics and
describes the history of the development of environmental-economic
statistics in the United States.
(3) Connecting Natural Capital and Environmental-Economic
Statistics with National Economic Accounts provides systematic
recommendations for the development of natural capital accounts and
environmental-economic statistics, placing them in the context of the
U.S. statistical system and in the context of the development of
international standards.
(4) Developing a U.S. System of Statistics for Environmental-
Economic Decisions: Targets, Timelines, and Tasks identifies headline
summaries and products, the pathway to production-grade accounts and
core statistical products, supporting activities necessary to develop
and
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manage the system, the environmental sectors the working group
recommends be developed into natural capital accounts, a proposed
timeline for developing individual accounts (e.g., an air account, a
land account), and additional research and guidance needs. This section
also identifies the data and expertise within the U.S. Government
needed to produce sustained natural capital accounts and environmental-
economic statistics.
(5) Administrative Coordination Across the Government details how
interagency coordination for developing the initiative would be carried
out by the Chief Statistician of the United States and processes to
facilitate data sharing to ensure interoperability across the Federal
Government. This section also summarizes the legal authority for
developing natural capital accounts and standardized environmental-
economic statistics.
This request for information aims to support the Working Group's
continued effort to develop and implement a strategy for developing
statistics for environmental-economic decisions. OMB is interested in
hearing from a diversity of stakeholders, sectors, and members of the
public.
Information Requested
OMB is issuing this notice in order to facilitate robust
interaction with the public on this new U.S. Government endeavor. Input
is welcome from stakeholders and members of the public representing all
backgrounds and perspectives. Through this RFI, OMB seeks information
and feedback on the Strategic Plan for Statistics for Environmental-
Economic Decisions in order to realize natural capital accounts and
associated environmental-economic statistics, including on the
following topics:
<bullet> Likely and potential applications for U.S. natural capital
accounts and associated environmental-economic statistics that would
improve government or private-sector decision making that are not
described in the draft Strategic Plan;
<bullet> Comments related to established and widely recognized
systems of environmental-economic statistics or natural capital
accounts that could strengthen the U.S. system;
<bullet> External factors that may affect the Federal Government's
ability to implement the Strategic Plan; and
<bullet> Ancillary or indirect consequences of developing natural
capital accounts or associated environmental-economic statistics.
K. Sabeel Rahman,
Senior Counselor, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2022-17993 Filed 8-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3110-01-P
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