Update of Linear Right-of-Way Rental Schedule, 24836-24838 [E6-6338]
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24836
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 81 / Thursday, April 27, 2006 / Proposed Rules
absence of a prior existing requirement
for the State to use voluntary consensus
standards (VCS), EPA has no authority
to disapprove a SIP submission for
failure to use VCS. It would thus be
inconsistent with applicable law for
EPA, when it reviews a SIP submission,
to use VCS in place of a SIP submission
that otherwise satisfies the provisions of
the Clean Air Act. Thus, the
requirements of section 12(d) of the
National Technology Transfer and
Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C.
272 note) do not apply. As required by
section 3 of Executive Order 12988 (61
FR 4729, February 7, 1996), in issuing
this proposed rule, EPA has taken the
necessary steps to eliminate drafting
errors and ambiguity, minimize
potential litigation, and provide a clear
legal standard for affected conduct. EPA
has complied with Executive Order
12630 (53 FR 8859, March 15, 1988) by
examining the takings implications of
the rule in accordance with the
‘‘Attorney General’s Supplemental
Guidelines for the Evaluation of Risk
and Avoidance of Unanticipated
Takings’’ issued under the executive
order. This proposed rule to approve
eight source-specific RACT
determinations established and imposed
by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
pursuant to its SIP-approved generic
RACT regulations does not impose an
information collection burden under the
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 52
Environmental protection, Air
pollution control, Nitrogen dioxide,
Ozone, Reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, Volatile organic
compounds.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
BILLING CODE 6560–50–P
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
43 CFR Parts 2800 and 2880
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with PROPOSALS1
[WO–350–06–1430–PP]
RIN 1004–AD87
Update of Linear Right-of-Way Rental
Schedule
Bureau of Land Management,
Interior.
VerDate Aug<31>2005
12:41 Apr 26, 2006
Jkt 208001
SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) requests comments
and suggestions to assist in the writing
of a proposed rule to update the linear
right-of-way rental schedule in 43 CFR
parts 2800 and 2880. The rental
schedule covers most linear rights-ofway granted under section 28 of the
Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as
amended (MLA), and Title V of the
Federal Land Policy and Management
Act of 1976, as amended (FLPMA). Both
laws require the holder of a right-of-way
to pay annually, in advance, the fair
market value to occupy, use, or traverse
public lands for facilities such as power
lines, fiber optic lines, pipelines, roads,
and ditches.
Section 367 of the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 (the Act) directs the Secretary of
the Interior to update the per-acre rental
fee schedule found in 43 CFR 2806.20.
This update is to be completed not later
than one year after the date of
enactment of the Act, which occurred
on August 8, 2005. The Act requires that
the BLM revise the per-acre rental feezone value schedule by state, county,
and type of linear right-of-way use to
reflect current land values in each zone.
The Act also requires the Secretary of
Agriculture (Forest Service) to make the
same revisions for rights-of-way on
National Forest System lands. We
encourage members of the public to
provide comments and suggestions to
help with updating the BLM’s and the
Forest Service’s rental schedule, as
described in the Act.
DATES: We will accept comments and
suggestions on the Advance Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking until May 30,
2006.
You may submit comments
by any of the following methods listed
below.
Mail: Director (630) Bureau of Land
Management, Administrative Record,
Room 401 LS, Eastern States Office,
7450 Boston Boulevard, Springfield,
Virginia 22153.
Personal or messenger delivery: Room
401, 1620 L Street, NW,, Washington,
DC 20036.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov.
E-mail:
comments_washington@blm.gov.
(Include ‘‘Attn: AD87’’).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For
information on the substance of the
Advance Notice, please contact
Christian Crowley at (202) 208–3799.
For information on procedural matters,
please contact Ian Senio at (202) 452–
ADDRESSES:
Dated: April 19, 2006.
William C. Early,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region III.
[FR Doc. E6–6364 Filed 4–26–06; 8:45 am]
AGENCY:
Advance Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking.
ACTION:
PO 00000
Frm 00017
Fmt 4702
Sfmt 4702
5049. Persons who use a
telecommunications device for the deaf
(TDD) may call the Federal Information
Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–
8339, to contact the above individuals
during business hours. FIRS is available
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
week.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Public Comment Procedures
Commenting on the Advance Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking
Written comments or suggestions
should:
• Be specific;
• Explain the reasoning behind your
comments and suggestions;
• Address the issues outlined in the
Notice; and
• Where possible, reference the
specific section or paragraph of existing
laws or regulations that you are
addressing.
For comments and recommendations
to be most useful, and most likely to
influence decisions on the content of
the proposed rule, they should:
• Be substantive;
• Facilitate development of a
uniform, cost effective administrative
process for calculating rental payments;
• Result in a fair and reasonable
payment of fair market rent; and
• Include citations to, and analyses
of, applicable laws and regulations.
The BLM is particularly interested in
receiving comments and suggestions
about the topics listed in Section III of
this Notice. All communication on these
topics should refer to RIN 1004–AD87,
and may be submitted by several
methods listed under the ADDRESSES
section of this Notice.
Comments received after the close of
the comment period (see DATES) need
not be considered or included in the
Administrative Record for the proposed
rule. Likewise, comments delivered to
an address other than those listed above
(see ADDRESSES) need not be considered
or included in the Administrative
Record for the proposed rule.
Reviewing Comments Submitted by
Others
Comments, including names and
street addresses of respondents, will be
available for public review at the
address listed under ‘‘ADDRESSES:
Personal or messenger delivery’’ during
regular business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:15
a.m.), Monday through Friday, except
holidays. Individual respondents may
request confidentiality, which will be
honored to the extent allowable by law.
Those wishing to withhold their name
or address (except for the city or town)
E:\FR\FM\27APP1.SGM
27APP1
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 81 / Thursday, April 27, 2006 / Proposed Rules
must state this prominently at the
beginning of their comment.
Submissions from organizations or
businesses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as
representatives or officials of
organizations or businesses, will be
made available for public inspection in
their entirety.
at $50, $100, $200, $300, $400, $500,
$600, and $1,000 per acre. A county’s
Zone Value is translated into a per-acre
Zone Rent by use of the adjustment
formula described below. To calculate
the annual right-of-way rental payment,
the Zone Rent is multiplied by the total
acreage within the right-of-way. The
formula for Zone Rent is:
II. Background
Zone Rent = (Zone Value) × (Impact
Adjustment) × (Price Index) × (Treasury
Security Rate)
Statutory
Section 367 of the Act, Fair Market
Value Determinations for Linear Rightsof-Way Across Public Lands and
National Forests, directs the Secretary of
the Interior to: (1) Update 43 CFR
2806.20, which contains the per-acre
rent schedule for linear rights-of-way;
(2) revise the per acre rental fee zone
value schedule by state, county, and
type of linear right-of-way uses to reflect
current values of land in each zone; and
(3) complete the update within one year
of enactment of the Act. The Act also
directs the Secretary of Agriculture to
make the same revisions to the
regulations that apply to rights-of-way
granted on National Forest System
(NFS) lands. This provision
supplements existing Secretarial
authority to assess and collect fair
market value of the right to use, cross,
or traverse public or NFS lands.
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with PROPOSALS1
Current Linear Rent Schedule
On July 8, 1987, and September 30,
1987, the BLM published regulations
establishing rental schedules for linear
rights-of-way granted under Section 28
of the MLA and Title V of FLPMA (52
FR 25818 and 52 FR 36576). The Forest
Service uses these same schedules to
charge rent for rights-of-way across NFS
lands. Therefore, updates to these
schedules would also impact the Forest
Service and users of NFS lands.
The 1987 rental schedule was
developed to set fair market rent, while
minimizing the need for individual real
estate appraisals for each right-of-way
requiring rent payments, as well as to
avoid the costs, delays, and
unpredictability of the appraisal process
in reasonably setting fair market rent.
The 1987 rental schedule defines
eight fee zones based on the distribution
of average land values by county in each
of the states, except Alaska. (The
existing rent schedule does not apply to
Alaska. Linear right-of-way rental fees
in Alaska are currently determined on a
case-by-case basis based on local market
values.) A county was assigned to one
of the eight Zone Values, based on land
values in the county: lower-value
counties were assigned lower-numbered
zones. The eight Zone Values were set
VerDate Aug<31>2005
12:41 Apr 26, 2006
Jkt 208001
The Zone Value term in the formula
is the land value that was established
for each of the eight zones. The Zone
Values established in 1987 have not
been updated since that time; however,
it is generally recognized that land
values have increased in most areas over
the past 20 years.
The Impact Adjustment term in the
formula reflects the differences in landuse impacts between (1) oil, gas, and
other energy-related pipelines, roads,
ditches, and canals, and (2) electrical
transmission and distribution lines,
telephone lines, and non-energy related
pipelines. Energy-related pipelines and
roads were considered as having a
greater surface disturbance impact on
the land, and were adjusted to 80
percent of the Zone Value. Electrical
transmission and distribution lines,
phone lines, and non-energy related
pipelines with a smaller area of
disturbance, were adjusted to 70 percent
of the Zone Value.
The Price Index term in the formula
allows the rental values to increase with
inflation. This number changes annually
reflecting the change in the Gross
Domestic Product, Implicit Price
Deflator Index.
The Treasury Security term in the
formula reflects a reasonable rate of
return to the United States for the use
of the land within the right-of-way. The
1987 regulations were based on a rate of
return of 6.41 percent for a one year
Treasury Security.
BLM Right-of-Way Program and
Revenues
The BLM generated over $15 million
in right-of-way rental receipts for fiscal
year 2005. The BLM administers nearly
90,000 rights-of-way, of which over
48,000 are subject to a rental payment.
Wyoming and New Mexico together
account for slightly more than 30,000 of
the rights-of-way subject to rent.
Seventy-five percent of all right-of-way
revenues were collected by five BLM
State Offices. These five State Offices
and the revenues collected are listed in
Table 1 below.
PO 00000
Frm 00018
Fmt 4702
Sfmt 4702
24837
TABLE 1.—RIGHT-OF-WAY RENTAL RECEIPTS FOR ‘‘TOP FIVE’’ BLM STATE
OFFICES
State office
Rental receipts
(FY 2005)
Nevada .................................
California ...............................
Wyoming ...............................
New Mexico ..........................
Arizona ..................................
$3,678,823
2,946,170
1,804,274
1,661,834
1,272,795
Total ...............................
11,363,896
Non-linear rights-of-way, including
communication site authorizations,
account for nearly 3,500 authorizations
generating over $5 million in revenue.
Subtracting the communication site
revenue from the $15 million reported
for all rights-of-way results in an
average rent of approximately $250 for
linear rights-of-way. The average rental
payment in 2005, including
communication site authorizations, was
approximately $320.
Description of Issues
The rental schedule is a cost-effective
means for calculating and billing rightof-way holders for the use of public
lands. In general, the rental schedule
must be fair and reasonable and rent
must be calculated in a consistent
manner, depending on the type of
authorized use.
To facilitate the billing process, the
rental schedule itself must be a costeffective way to administer the right-ofway program relative to the amount of
revenue collected. In addition, right-ofway holders should be able to estimate
rental payments and forecast changes in
billed rent in accordance with the terms
and conditions of the right-of-way.
Updating the rental schedule formula
will require changes to current rental
payments; depending on the magnitude
of the changes in various components of
the formula, rents are likely to increase
as a result of the general increase in
land values. Impacts on groups or
individual holders ultimately depend
on the formula options considered.
As part of the rulemaking process,
impacts of any increase in rent on
current holders and small businesses
will be evaluated. In addition, the
proposed regulation will likely include
a phase-in period and other provisions
designed to facilitate the transition to
the new rents. In cases where the
applicant feels that the calculated rent
is excessive, additional relief may
include provisions for reduction or
waiver of rent as is currently provided
for by 43 CFR 2806.15 or for an
alternative calculation of rent, based on
an appraisal report. For such an
E:\FR\FM\27APP1.SGM
27APP1
24838
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 81 / Thursday, April 27, 2006 / Proposed Rules
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with PROPOSALS1
appraisal report to be admissible, the
applicant would be required to follow
applicable Departmental and Agency
instructions, pay for the cost of the
appraisal report, and ensure that the
report meets Federal standards.
The BLM is considering using existing
published information or statistical data
for updating the rental schedule, such as
information published by the National
Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS).
NASS publishes two reports: (1) The
Census of Agriculture published every
five years (Five Year Census), and (2)
the annual Land Values and Cash Rents
Summary (Annual Report).
The Five Year Census includes land
values by county for each state. The
land values are reported for cropland,
woodland, permanent pasture, and
rangeland and includes buildings.
The NASS data in the Annual Report
includes state average pastureland
values. The statewide average for
pastureland may approximate rural
VerDate Aug<31>2005
12:41 Apr 26, 2006
Jkt 208001
agricultural types of land (woodlands
and rangelands) that are administered
by the BLM. You can find more detailed
information about these two reports at
the NASS Web site at: https://
www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp.
III. Description of Information
Requested
The BLM is particularly interested in
receiving comments on the following
questions:
1. What available published
information, statistical data, or reports
should BLM use to update the current
linear right-of-way rental fee Zone
Values?
2. What, if any, other terms, e.g.,
impact adjustment or rate of return,
used in the 1987 rental formula should
BLM update, clarify, or revise? Should
the one-year Treasury Rate (rate of
return) used in the current formula, i.e.,
6.41 percent, be revised to reflect the
current rate? If yes, should the rate be
updated annually?
PO 00000
Frm 00019
Fmt 4702
Sfmt 4702
3. What, if any, provisions should
BLM include in the proposed regulation
to provide relief from large, unexpected
increases in individual rental payments?
4. How should the number of rental
zones be changed in the new linear
right-of-way rental schedule, if at all?
5. Should the new linear right-of-way
rental schedule split some states and
counties into more than one zone?
6. Should the new linear right-of-way
rental schedule apply to BLMadministered lands in Alaska?
The BLM further solicits public
comments on other approaches for
updating the 1987 linear right-of-way
rental schedule. Other suggestions will
be considered inasmuch as they may
facilitate updating the current schedule.
Dated: April 17, 2006.
Chad Calvert,
Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
[FR Doc. E6–6338 Filed 4–26–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–84–P
E:\FR\FM\27APP1.SGM
27APP1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 81 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 24836-24838]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-6338]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
43 CFR Parts 2800 and 2880
[WO-350-06-1430-PP]
RIN 1004-AD87
Update of Linear Right-of-Way Rental Schedule
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requests comments and
suggestions to assist in the writing of a proposed rule to update the
linear right-of-way rental schedule in 43 CFR parts 2800 and 2880. The
rental schedule covers most linear rights-of-way granted under section
28 of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended (MLA), and Title V of
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended (FLPMA).
Both laws require the holder of a right-of-way to pay annually, in
advance, the fair market value to occupy, use, or traverse public lands
for facilities such as power lines, fiber optic lines, pipelines,
roads, and ditches.
Section 367 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (the Act) directs the
Secretary of the Interior to update the per-acre rental fee schedule
found in 43 CFR 2806.20. This update is to be completed not later than
one year after the date of enactment of the Act, which occurred on
August 8, 2005. The Act requires that the BLM revise the per-acre
rental fee-zone value schedule by state, county, and type of linear
right-of-way use to reflect current land values in each zone. The Act
also requires the Secretary of Agriculture (Forest Service) to make the
same revisions for rights-of-way on National Forest System lands. We
encourage members of the public to provide comments and suggestions to
help with updating the BLM's and the Forest Service's rental schedule,
as described in the Act.
DATES: We will accept comments and suggestions on the Advance Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking until May 30, 2006.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods
listed below.
Mail: Director (630) Bureau of Land Management, Administrative
Record, Room 401 LS, Eastern States Office, 7450 Boston Boulevard,
Springfield, Virginia 22153.
Personal or messenger delivery: Room 401, 1620 L Street, NW,,
Washington, DC 20036.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.
E-mail: comments_washington@blm.gov. (Include ``Attn: AD87'').
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the substance of
the Advance Notice, please contact Christian Crowley at (202) 208-3799.
For information on procedural matters, please contact Ian Senio at
(202) 452-5049. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the
deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-
800-877-8339, to contact the above individuals during business hours.
FIRS is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Public Comment Procedures
Commenting on the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
Written comments or suggestions should:
Be specific;
Explain the reasoning behind your comments and
suggestions;
Address the issues outlined in the Notice; and
Where possible, reference the specific section or
paragraph of existing laws or regulations that you are addressing.
For comments and recommendations to be most useful, and most likely
to influence decisions on the content of the proposed rule, they
should:
Be substantive;
Facilitate development of a uniform, cost effective
administrative process for calculating rental payments;
Result in a fair and reasonable payment of fair market
rent; and
Include citations to, and analyses of, applicable laws and
regulations.
The BLM is particularly interested in receiving comments and
suggestions about the topics listed in Section III of this Notice. All
communication on these topics should refer to RIN 1004-AD87, and may be
submitted by several methods listed under the ADDRESSES section of this
Notice.
Comments received after the close of the comment period (see DATES)
need not be considered or included in the Administrative Record for the
proposed rule. Likewise, comments delivered to an address other than
those listed above (see ADDRESSES) need not be considered or included
in the Administrative Record for the proposed rule.
Reviewing Comments Submitted by Others
Comments, including names and street addresses of respondents, will
be available for public review at the address listed under ``ADDRESSES:
Personal or messenger delivery'' during regular business hours (7:45
a.m. to 4:15 a.m.), Monday through Friday, except holidays. Individual
respondents may request confidentiality, which will be honored to the
extent allowable by law. Those wishing to withhold their name or
address (except for the city or town)
[[Page 24837]]
must state this prominently at the beginning of their comment.
Submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations
or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their
entirety.
II. Background
Statutory
Section 367 of the Act, Fair Market Value Determinations for Linear
Rights-of-Way Across Public Lands and National Forests, directs the
Secretary of the Interior to: (1) Update 43 CFR 2806.20, which contains
the per-acre rent schedule for linear rights-of-way; (2) revise the per
acre rental fee zone value schedule by state, county, and type of
linear right-of-way uses to reflect current values of land in each
zone; and (3) complete the update within one year of enactment of the
Act. The Act also directs the Secretary of Agriculture to make the same
revisions to the regulations that apply to rights-of-way granted on
National Forest System (NFS) lands. This provision supplements existing
Secretarial authority to assess and collect fair market value of the
right to use, cross, or traverse public or NFS lands.
Current Linear Rent Schedule
On July 8, 1987, and September 30, 1987, the BLM published
regulations establishing rental schedules for linear rights-of-way
granted under Section 28 of the MLA and Title V of FLPMA (52 FR 25818
and 52 FR 36576). The Forest Service uses these same schedules to
charge rent for rights-of-way across NFS lands. Therefore, updates to
these schedules would also impact the Forest Service and users of NFS
lands.
The 1987 rental schedule was developed to set fair market rent,
while minimizing the need for individual real estate appraisals for
each right-of-way requiring rent payments, as well as to avoid the
costs, delays, and unpredictability of the appraisal process in
reasonably setting fair market rent.
The 1987 rental schedule defines eight fee zones based on the
distribution of average land values by county in each of the states,
except Alaska. (The existing rent schedule does not apply to Alaska.
Linear right-of-way rental fees in Alaska are currently determined on a
case-by-case basis based on local market values.) A county was assigned
to one of the eight Zone Values, based on land values in the county:
lower-value counties were assigned lower-numbered zones. The eight Zone
Values were set at $50, $100, $200, $300, $400, $500, $600, and $1,000
per acre. A county's Zone Value is translated into a per-acre Zone Rent
by use of the adjustment formula described below. To calculate the
annual right-of-way rental payment, the Zone Rent is multiplied by the
total acreage within the right-of-way. The formula for Zone Rent is:
Zone Rent = (Zone Value) x (Impact Adjustment) x (Price Index) x
(Treasury Security Rate)
The Zone Value term in the formula is the land value that was
established for each of the eight zones. The Zone Values established in
1987 have not been updated since that time; however, it is generally
recognized that land values have increased in most areas over the past
20 years.
The Impact Adjustment term in the formula reflects the differences
in land-use impacts between (1) oil, gas, and other energy-related
pipelines, roads, ditches, and canals, and (2) electrical transmission
and distribution lines, telephone lines, and non-energy related
pipelines. Energy-related pipelines and roads were considered as having
a greater surface disturbance impact on the land, and were adjusted to
80 percent of the Zone Value. Electrical transmission and distribution
lines, phone lines, and non-energy related pipelines with a smaller
area of disturbance, were adjusted to 70 percent of the Zone Value.
The Price Index term in the formula allows the rental values to
increase with inflation. This number changes annually reflecting the
change in the Gross Domestic Product, Implicit Price Deflator Index.
The Treasury Security term in the formula reflects a reasonable
rate of return to the United States for the use of the land within the
right-of-way. The 1987 regulations were based on a rate of return of
6.41 percent for a one year Treasury Security.
BLM Right-of-Way Program and Revenues
The BLM generated over $15 million in right-of-way rental receipts
for fiscal year 2005. The BLM administers nearly 90,000 rights-of-way,
of which over 48,000 are subject to a rental payment. Wyoming and New
Mexico together account for slightly more than 30,000 of the rights-of-
way subject to rent. Seventy-five percent of all right-of-way revenues
were collected by five BLM State Offices. These five State Offices and
the revenues collected are listed in Table 1 below.
Table 1.--Right-of-Way Rental Receipts for ``Top Five'' BLM State
Offices
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rental
State office receipts (FY
2005)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nevada.................................................. $3,678,823
California.............................................. 2,946,170
Wyoming................................................. 1,804,274
New Mexico.............................................. 1,661,834
Arizona................................................. 1,272,795
---------------
Total............................................... 11,363,896
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-linear rights-of-way, including communication site
authorizations, account for nearly 3,500 authorizations generating over
$5 million in revenue. Subtracting the communication site revenue from
the $15 million reported for all rights-of-way results in an average
rent of approximately $250 for linear rights-of-way. The average rental
payment in 2005, including communication site authorizations, was
approximately $320.
Description of Issues
The rental schedule is a cost-effective means for calculating and
billing right-of-way holders for the use of public lands. In general,
the rental schedule must be fair and reasonable and rent must be
calculated in a consistent manner, depending on the type of authorized
use.
To facilitate the billing process, the rental schedule itself must
be a cost-effective way to administer the right-of-way program relative
to the amount of revenue collected. In addition, right-of-way holders
should be able to estimate rental payments and forecast changes in
billed rent in accordance with the terms and conditions of the right-
of-way. Updating the rental schedule formula will require changes to
current rental payments; depending on the magnitude of the changes in
various components of the formula, rents are likely to increase as a
result of the general increase in land values. Impacts on groups or
individual holders ultimately depend on the formula options considered.
As part of the rulemaking process, impacts of any increase in rent
on current holders and small businesses will be evaluated. In addition,
the proposed regulation will likely include a phase-in period and other
provisions designed to facilitate the transition to the new rents. In
cases where the applicant feels that the calculated rent is excessive,
additional relief may include provisions for reduction or waiver of
rent as is currently provided for by 43 CFR 2806.15 or for an
alternative calculation of rent, based on an appraisal report. For such
an
[[Page 24838]]
appraisal report to be admissible, the applicant would be required to
follow applicable Departmental and Agency instructions, pay for the
cost of the appraisal report, and ensure that the report meets Federal
standards.
The BLM is considering using existing published information or
statistical data for updating the rental schedule, such as information
published by the National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS). NASS
publishes two reports: (1) The Census of Agriculture published every
five years (Five Year Census), and (2) the annual Land Values and Cash
Rents Summary (Annual Report).
The Five Year Census includes land values by county for each state.
The land values are reported for cropland, woodland, permanent pasture,
and rangeland and includes buildings.
The NASS data in the Annual Report includes state average
pastureland values. The statewide average for pastureland may
approximate rural agricultural types of land (woodlands and rangelands)
that are administered by the BLM. You can find more detailed
information about these two reports at the NASS Web site at: https://
www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp.
III. Description of Information Requested
The BLM is particularly interested in receiving comments on the
following questions:
1. What available published information, statistical data, or
reports should BLM use to update the current linear right-of-way rental
fee Zone Values?
2. What, if any, other terms, e.g., impact adjustment or rate of
return, used in the 1987 rental formula should BLM update, clarify, or
revise? Should the one-year Treasury Rate (rate of return) used in the
current formula, i.e., 6.41 percent, be revised to reflect the current
rate? If yes, should the rate be updated annually?
3. What, if any, provisions should BLM include in the proposed
regulation to provide relief from large, unexpected increases in
individual rental payments?
4. How should the number of rental zones be changed in the new
linear right-of-way rental schedule, if at all?
5. Should the new linear right-of-way rental schedule split some
states and counties into more than one zone?
6. Should the new linear right-of-way rental schedule apply to BLM-
administered lands in Alaska?
The BLM further solicits public comments on other approaches for
updating the 1987 linear right-of-way rental schedule. Other
suggestions will be considered inasmuch as they may facilitate updating
the current schedule.
Dated: April 17, 2006.
Chad Calvert,
Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
[FR Doc. E6-6338 Filed 4-26-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-84-P
