The White House Council on Environmental Quality and Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining has scheduled a meeting on Aug. 26 in Denver to discuss the formation of the Rocky Mountain Energy Council (RMEC), a state-federal partnership that would look for ways to streamline environmentally government handling of renewable and nonrenewable energy production and transmission projects. The RMEC is expected to have its first meeting before the end of the year, according to a Federal Register notice.

State and federal agency managers held a government-to-government planning and organization meeting July 8-9. Participants included representatives from the states of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Montana, and federal agencies.

The objective of the next meeting is to evaluate the benefits of creating the council and to determine what steps would be needed to organize and implement it. Participants in the first meeting already agreed on the need for a council to develop streamlined and forward-looking decision processes with respect to energy projects while preserving existing environmental protections.

Three functions for the RMEC were identified:

Discussions at the July organizational meeting focused on identifying impediments and possible solutions to federal/state partnerships, processes for early collaboration, information sharing, decision processes, conflict resolution, and strategic planning. Issues identified included limited resources, conflicting agency mandates and regulatory and jurisdictional conflicts. A broad agreement was developed that this type of collaborative effort is necessary to address the cross-cutting issues raised by energy development on public lands in the West.

The next meeting will be held at the Sheraton Denver West hotel in Lakewood, CO. It will be open to the public and about 200 visitors can be accommodated on a first-come-first-served basis. It will be held Tuesday, Aug. 26 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. For more information call Annette West at (202) 586-3464 or e-mail annette.west@hq.doe.gov.

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