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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 5 / Friday, January 8, 2021 / Rules and Regulations sponsors and Federal agencies are affected by the rule. Designating mining as a FAST41 sector does not extend FAST41 coverage to any project, affect any agencys discretion to issue or deny a mining project permit or authorization, or displace any existing requirement for public involvement or environmental review associated with any covered project. It remains the responsibility of each authorizing agency to weigh the relative environmental and economic merits of their decisions with respect to a covered project in accordance with their own statutory and regulatory authorities and policies. Designating mining as a FAST
41 sector likewise does not affect any Federal agencys obligation to engage in government-to-government consultation with respect to any mining project.
Because adding mining as a FAST41
sector does not affect Tribes or minority and low-income populations, the Permitting Council is not required to engage in government-to-government consultation pursuant to E.O. 13175 or to identify and address any disproportionate effect that mining may have on minority and low-income populations.

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Proposed Definition of Mine Two commenters recommended that the Permitting Council consider adopting the definition of mine from 40 CFR 440.132g, which includes land and property under or above the surface of an active mining area that is used in, or results from, the work of extracting metal ore or minerals from their natural deposits. The commenters referenced definition also includes such lands that are used for secondary recovery of metal ore from refuse or other storage piles, wastes, or rock dumps, and mill tailings derived from the mining, cleaning, or concentration of metal ores.
The Permitting Council appreciates the suggestion, but for the purpose of adding a FAST41 sector pursuant to 42
U.S.C. 4370m6A, the Permitting Council seeks to define mining, rather than mine. The Permitting Council did not change the definition of mining in response to the comment, and believes that the definition in the proposed rule is sufficiently broad to capture the range of mining activities intended i.e., extracting ore, minerals, or raw materials from the ground.
Economic Analysis Adding mining as a sector with infrastructure projects eligible for coverage under FAST41could result in improved timeliness, predictability, and transparency associated with the projects that ultimately become FAST

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41 covered projects, and for the Federal agencies participating in the FAST41
process for those covered projects.
However, quantifying any potential economic benefits that might result from adding mining as a FAST41 sector is speculative. Simply providing the option of FAST41 coverage to qualified mining projects does not assure how many, if any, mining project FAST41
Initiation Notices FINs will be submitted to the Permitting Council for coverage, or how many projects ultimately will be covered. See 42
U.S.C. 4370m2a1A & C. Nor does it guarantee that any economic benefits would result from such coverage, particularly given that the permitting and environmental review requirements and permitting timetables for each covered project are unique.
Although the Permitting Council cannot predict precisely how many mining projects may become covered projects, the number will be small. The eligibility criteria for FAST41 coverage are selective; only the largest projects that are the most prepared for Federal review may become covered projects.
See 42 U.S.C. 4370m6 definition of covered project including $200
million project value threshold or alternative permitting complexity requirement; 4370m2c1A &
Bii, 4370m2c2A sponsors must provide agencies with information sufficient to create a comprehensive and complete project permitting timetable within 60 days of initial project coverage; OMB M1714, Guidance to Federal Agencies Regarding the Environmental Review and Authorization Process for Infrastructure Projects FAST41 Guidance, Sec. 3
Jan. 17, 2017 project description must be sufficient at the outset to facilitate appropriate level of analysis under NEPA and interagency coordination on all required permits/authorizations.
Since the enactment of FAST41 in 2015, a total of 54 projects have been covered. Of these projects, only 20 were covered as the result of successfully submitted FINs that met the FAST41
coverage criteria. The remaining 34
projects were statutorily covered as pending projects immediately after the enactment of FAST41. See 43 U.S.C.
4370m1c1Ai and 4370m 2b2Ai. The 20 successfully submitted FINs include one conventional energy production project, one electricity transmission project, two pipeline projects, one ports and waterways project, 13 renewable energy production projects, and two water resource projects.
Some commenters expressed the belief that the Permitting Council will
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receive more interest from potential mining project sponsors, and ultimately cover more mining projects, than estimated in the preamble to the proposed rule. But the Permitting Council continues to anticipate that very fewlikely 10 or fewermining project FINs will be submitted before the FAST41 sunset date of December 4, 2022. 42 U.S.C. 4370m12. This is in part because the Permitting Council expects the sunset date to act as a disincentive to the project sponsors who are likely to be most interested in FAST41 coverage. Such sponsors include proponents of large or complex mining projects with a significant number of Federal and state authorizations and with longer permitting horizons. It is questionable whether these project sponsors would be able to derive the full benefits of FAST41 coverage if the FAST41
program may terminate before the Federal review and decision-making process for the project can be completed.
The Permitting Council notes that the statutory criteria for becoming a FAST
41 covered project is different from the criteria for whether a project is subject to the provisions of E.O. 13807, or E.O.
13766, Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure Projects, 82 FR
8567 Jan. 30, 2017. Accordingly, the fact that a federal agency may have determined that a project is subject to one or both of these E.O.s does not indicate that that project is, would, or could become a FAST41 covered project. The exclusive means by which a project can become a FAST41
covered project is through the submission and review of a project FIN
in accordance with the FAST41
covered project criteria at 42 U.S.C.
4370m6, and the subsequent addition of the project to the Permitting Dashboard by the Permitting Council Executive Director in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 4370m2b2.
Based on historical experience, only a portion of submitted FINs become covered projects. Since the inception of FAST41, only 20 submitted FINs have become covered projects across all 10
FAST41 sectors. To date, the Permitting Council has received fewer than five FINs for projects that involve mining that may potentially have been eligible for coverage under the statutory FAST41 sectors e.g., conventional energy. But all of these FINs either were rejected for failing to meet other FAST41 eligibility criteria or were withdrawn by the project sponsor for other reasons. It is therefore unlikely that adding mining to the 10 statutory
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