WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting the public to provide input on a plan that will guide EPA’s review of regulations as part of the agency’s response to President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.”

EO 13563 directs each federal agency to consider “how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.” Specifically, the EO calls on every agency to develop “a preliminary plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory priorities, under which the agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective and/or less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives.”

EPA said it is committed to using common sense and transparency to review federal regulations and it will solicit public input regarding the design of its plan via the EPA website through March 20, 2011. EPA will also provide opportunities for input through a public meeting in Washington, D.C., on March 14, and listening sessions in other parts of the country. The agency said these outreach efforts will allow the public to provide EPA with feedback on specific issues, impacts, or programs. More information about these meetings will be announced.

By late May, EPA expects to provide the public with its review plan, as well as the initial list of regulations it plans to review.

For more information, visit www.epa.gov/improvingregulations.

Publication date: 02/28/2011