(a) The Associate Administrator for Planning and Evaluation shall be responsible for the preparation and maintenance of a list of actions for which draft or final environmental impact statements have been or are to be prepared. This list shall be on file with the Associate Administrator for Planning and Evaluation and shall be available for public inspection in the Docket Section upon request. A copy of the initial list and its updatings at the end of each calendar quarter shall be transmitted by the Associate Administrator for Planning and Evaluation to TES and CEQ.

(b) If a determination is made that an environmental statement is not necessary for a proposed action (1) which has been identified as normally requiring preparation of a statement, (2) which is similar to actions for which a significant number of statements have been prepared, (3) which the agency has previously announced would be the subject of a statement, or (4) for which the official responsible for such proposal has made a negative determination in response to a request from the CEQ, a record briefly setting forth the decision and the reasons for that determination shall be prepared by the responsible official. Such a record of negative determinations and any evaluations made pursuant to § 520.21 which conclude that preparation of a statement is not yet timely shall be prepared by the responsible official, submitted to the Associate Administrator for Planning and Evaluation, and made available by the Associate Administrator for Planning and Evaluation in the same manner as provided in paragraph (a) of this section for lists of statements under preparation.