Vice President Al Gore presented his second "No Gobbledygook Award" Wednesday to two Bureau of Land Management employees who rewrote a regulation on geothermal power.
Chris Fontecchio, a BLM regulatory analyst, and Richard Hoops, program coordinator of the agency's National Geothermal Program, won the award for streamlining a rule on leasing and developing federal land to produce geothermal power.
"This isn't just about good writing," Gore said. "It's about good government and good government service. Plain language helps create understanding and understanding helps create trust. And trust, especially in the promise of self-government, is essential to solving the common problems we face."
The BLM regulation that won the second monthly award explains the procedure for obtaining permission to use federal land to produce geothermal power. The regulation used to read:
"A permit to construct and operate an individual production well facility of not more than 10-megawatt net capacity or heat energy equivalent, including all related on-lease facilities, must be obtained from the authorized office prior to commencing surface disturbing activities related to the construction and operation of each such facility..."
Fontecchio and Hoops' rewrite reads:
"What do I need to start preparing a site and building and testing a utilization facility on federal land leased for geothermal resources? If you want to use federal land to produce geothermal power, you have to get a site license and construction permit before you even start preparing the site..."
The awards are part of the Vice President's plain language initiative, launched last month. Under the initiative, federal agencies must write all letters, forms, notices and instructions in plain English starting this October. All regulations must be written in plain English beginning in January 1999. In addition, agencies must rewrite existing documents--not including regulations--over the next four years.
Marthe Kent, director of the Office of Regulatory Analysis at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, won the first of Gore's No Gobbledygook Awards for clearing up a regulation about "dip tanks."
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