Proposed Agency Information Collection, 8852-8853 [2012-3535]
Download as PDF
<![CDATA[
sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
8852
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 31 / Wednesday, February 15, 2012 / Notices
administrative and national policy
requirements in the application package
and reference these and other
requirements in the Applicable
Regulations section of this notice.
We reference the regulations outlining
the terms and conditions of an award in
the Applicable Regulations section of
this notice and include these and other
specific conditions in the GAN. The
GAN also incorporates your approved
application as part of your binding
commitments under the grant.
3. Reporting: (a) If you apply for a
grant under this competition, you must
ensure that you have in place the
necessary processes and systems to
comply with the reporting requirements
in 2 CFR part 170 and section 1704(f) of
the ESEA should you receive funding
under the competition. The reporting
requirements in 2 CFR part 170 do not
apply if you have an exception under 2
CFR 170.110(b).
(b) At the end of your project period,
you must submit a final performance
report, including financial information,
as directed by the Secretary. The
Secretary may also require more
frequent performance reports under 34
CFR 75.720(c). For specific
requirements on reporting, please go to
www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/
appforms/appforms.html.
4. Performance Measures: Under the
Government Performance and Results
Act of 1993 (GPRA), the Department has
developed five performance measures to
evaluate the overall effectiveness of the
AP Test Fee program: (1) The number of
advanced placement tests taken by lowincome public school students
nationally; (2) The number of advanced
placement tests taken by minority
(Hispanic, Black, Native American)
public school students nationally; (3)
The percentage of advanced placement
tests passed (for AP exams, scores of 3–
5) by low-income public school students
nationally; (4) The number of advanced
placement tests passed (for AP exams,
scores of 3–5) by low-income public
school students nationally; and (5) The
cost per passage of an advanced
placement test taken by a low-income
public school student. The information
provided by grantees in their final
performance reports will be one of the
sources of data for the measures. Other
sources of data include the College
Board, IB Americas, and University of
Cambridge International Examinations.
VII. Agency Contact
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Francisco Ramirez, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW.,
room 3E224, Washington, DC 20202–
VerDate Mar<15>2010
17:09 Feb 14, 2012
Jkt 226001
6200. Telephone: (202) 260–1541 or by
email: francisco.ramirez@ed.gov.
If you use a TDD or a TTY, call the
FRS, toll free, at 1–800–877–8339.
VIII. Other Information
Accessible Format: Individuals with
disabilities can obtain this document
and a copy of the application package in
an accessible format (e.g., braille, large
print, audiotape, or compact disc) on
request to the program contact person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT in section VII of this notice.
Electronic Access to This Document:
The official version of this document is
the document published in the Federal
Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register
and the Code of Federal Regulations is
available via the Federal Digital System
at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you
can view this document, as well as all
other documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in
text or Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF). To use PDF you must
have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the
Department published in the Federal
Register by using the article search
feature at: www.federalregister.gov.
Specifically, through the advanced
search feature at this site, you can limit
your search to documents published by
the Department.
Dated: February 10, 2012.
Michael Yudin,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Elementary and
Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2012–3560 Filed 2–14–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy
Proposed Agency Information
Collection
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of
Energy.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:
The Department of Energy
(DOE) invites public comment on a
proposed collection of information for a
National Evaluation of the Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant
Program (EECBG) that DOE is
developing for submission to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB)
pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995. Comments are invited on:
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00052
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
(a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
agency, including whether the
information shall have practical utility;
(b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate
of the burden of the proposed collection
of information, including the validity of
the methodology and assumptions used;
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility,
and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the
burden of the collection of information
on respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Information about the outcomes of the
program, including energy and cost
savings, the net number of jobs created
or retained, and gross reductions in
carbon emissions, is needed for a
comprehensive evaluation of the
program.
Comments regarding this
proposed information collection must
be received on or before April 16, 2012.
If you anticipate difficulty in submitting
comments within that period, contact
the person listed in ADDRESSES as soon
as possible.
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be
sent to Colleen Rizy, Environmental
Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS–6036,
Oak Ridge, TN 37831–6036;
rizycg@ornl.gov.
DATES:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information
should be directed to: Colleen Rizy,
Environmental Sciences Division, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box
2008, MS–6036, Oak Ridge, TN 37831–
6036; rizycg@ornl.gov
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This
information collection request contains:
(1) OMB No. New.
(2) Information Collection Request
Title: National Evaluation of the United
States Department of Energy’s Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant
Program.
(3) Type of Request: New.
(4) Purpose: DOE is conducting an
evaluation of EECBG, a national
program providing over $2.7 billion in
grants to approximately 2,350 cities,
counties, States, territories, and Indian
Tribes. Grants could be used for energy
efficiency and conservation efforts,
building code support, renewable
energy installations, distributed energy
technologies, transportation activities,
recycling and waste management efforts,
and other activities approved by DOE.
The EECBG Program, authorized in
Title V, Subtitle E of the Energy
Independence and Security Act (EISA)
E:\FR\FM\15FEN1.SGM
15FEN1
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 31 / Wednesday, February 15, 2012 / Notices
sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
and signed into law on December 19,
2007, was funded, for the first time, by
the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Funding
Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for
Formula Grants was issued on June 25,
2009 and closed on June 25, 2010.
The scope of the National Evaluation
of EECBG involves a combination of
careful reviews of grant status reports
and applications (‘‘engineering desk
reviews’’), conversations with DOE
project officers, and in-depth interviews
with grant managers to assemble critical
data for answering the three questions of
interest:
1. What is the total magnitude of
energy and cost savings, and other key
outcomes, such as gross carbon
emissions reduction and the net number
of jobs created or retained, achieved in
Broad Program Areas that cumulatively
account for approximately 80 percent of
total Formula Grant expenditures in the
2009–2011 program years?
2. What is the magnitude of outcomes
achieved by each of the most heavilyfunded Broad Program Areas within the
EECBG portfolio?
3. What are the key factors
influencing the magnitude of EECBG
outcomes?
These questions will be answered by
evaluating a sample of 350 grant activity
examples from a pool of direct grants
and State sub-grants, all issued as part
of the EECBG program.
Scale of the Information Collection
The DOE Formula grants are welldefined and have been further
scrutinized by Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL)/DOE and its
contractors for categorization into Broad
Program Areas and activities. The
evaluation team will complete the
process of counting and categorizing the
State sub-grants. From these combined
lists of grants, sorted by Broad Program
Area, sub-area, and activity, and from a
set of criteria developed by ORNL/DOE
and its contractors, a sampling approach
will be applied to select 350 grants for
study. That random sample of projects
will be taken from the six Broad
Program Areas that, in combination,
account for over 80 percent of total
EECBG Formula Grant expenditures,
which will allow valid inferences to be
drawn for each Broad Program Area
examined.
Data collection will begin with a
combination of careful reviews of DOE
program databases, grant status reports
and applications (‘‘engineering desk
reviews’’), and conversations with DOE
project officers and Regional and State
Coordinators. After this extensive
preliminary data collection effort,
interviews will be conducted with grant
VerDate Mar<15>2010
17:09 Feb 14, 2012
Jkt 226001
program managers and grant project
managers for each sample point. The
two survey instruments proposed are:
1. Grant Activity-Level Contact
Survey: Verifies activities performed,
measures installed, measure level data,
and other relevant project information
necessary to calculate program impacts
and other metrics.
There will be 2 versions of this survey
instrument: One for grant activities
targeted to residential dwellings, and
one for non-residential buildings.
2. Performance Indicators Survey:
Collects information regarding
operational success factors to be
combined with grant data and
secondary data on economic and other
external factors for determining what
conditions and elements are necessary
for a successful project.
Together, these surveys will involve
700 respondents and entail a total
burden of 642 hours. This calculation is
based on the assumption that the
telephone surveys used in this study
will require an average of 55 minutes,
depending on the individual survey
instrument.
This evaluation approach will not
include any data collection from
individual service recipients to estimate
savings or outcomes. This study will use
data from the above-mentioned
interviews plus additional information
that can be obtained from program
records and secondary sources, as well
as engineering-based analytical
methods, to produce energy savings and
outcome estimates.
The above-described data collection
instruments will be supplemented by
additional records research and
database review activities provided by
the Grant Program Managers and Local
Grant Activity Managers. These general
recordkeeping activities will require an
estimated 487 hours. Combining the
burden hours associated with telephone
surveys (642 hours) with the burden
hours associated with general records
review (487 hours) produces a total
estimated burden of 1,129 hours.
Two key steps are being taken to
avoid duplicating the efforts of any
concurrent evaluations of EECBG
activities: (1) Identifying results from
any EECBG grant evaluation efforts
taking place at the State level; and (2)
coordinating with the Better Buildings
Program evaluation concerning any data
collection already taking place during
the same time period that addresses
EECBG grant activities.
The sample selection of Broad
Program Areas and specific
programmatic activities within each
Broad Program Area is scheduled to be
completed by June 2012. Data collection
and calculation of outcomes are
PO 00000
Frm 00053
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
8853
scheduled to be completed by October
2012.
The detailed study design and work
plan for the EECBG evaluation has been
available for public review since
January 2012 at https://
weatherization.ornl.gov/eecbg.shtml.
(5) Annual Estimated Number of
Respondents: 700.
(6) Annual Estimated Number of
Total Responses: 700.
(7) Annual Estimated Total Number
of Burden Hours (Interview and Record
Review): 1,129.
Statutory Authority: Title V, Subtitle E of
the Energy Independence and Security Act of
2007, codified at 42 U.S.C. 17151–17158.
Issued in Washington, DC on February 1,
2012.
Henry C. Kelly,
Acting Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy.
[FR Doc. 2012–3535 Filed 2–14–12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission
Sunshine Act Meeting Notice
The following notice of meeting is
published pursuant to section 3(a) of the
government in the Sunshine Act (Pub.
L. 94–409), 5 U.S.C. 552b:
AGENCY HOLDING MEETING: Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission.
DATE AND TIME: February 16, 2012, 10
a.m.
PLACE: Room 2C, 888 First Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20426.
STATUS: Open.
MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: Agenda.
* Note—Items listed on the agenda
may be deleted without further notice.
CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Telephone
(202) 502–8400.
For a recorded message listing items
struck from or added to the meeting, call
(202) 502–8627.
This is a list of matters to be
considered by the Commission. It does
not include a listing of all documents
relevant to the items on the agenda. All
public documents, however, may be
viewed on line at the Commission’s
Web site at https://www.ferc.gov using
the eLibrary link, or may be examined
in the Commission’s Public Reference
Room.
978th—Meeting
Regular Meeting
February 16, 2012, 10 a.m.
E:\FR\FM\15FEN1.SGM
15FEN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8852-8853]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-3535]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Proposed Agency Information Collection
AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S.
Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) invites public comment on a
proposed collection of information for a National Evaluation of the
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) that DOE
is developing for submission to the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Comments are
invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the
accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology
and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including
the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of
information technology. Information about the outcomes of the program,
including energy and cost savings, the net number of jobs created or
retained, and gross reductions in carbon emissions, is needed for a
comprehensive evaluation of the program.
DATES: Comments regarding this proposed information collection must be
received on or before April 16, 2012. If you anticipate difficulty in
submitting comments within that period, contact the person listed in
ADDRESSES as soon as possible.
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to Colleen Rizy, Environmental
Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS-
6036, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036; rizycg@ornl.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be directed to: Colleen Rizy, Environmental Sciences Division,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS-6036, Oak Ridge, TN
37831-6036; rizycg@ornl.gov
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request
contains:
(1) OMB No. New.
(2) Information Collection Request Title: National Evaluation of
the United States Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Block Grant Program.
(3) Type of Request: New.
(4) Purpose: DOE is conducting an evaluation of EECBG, a national
program providing over $2.7 billion in grants to approximately 2,350
cities, counties, States, territories, and Indian Tribes. Grants could
be used for energy efficiency and conservation efforts, building code
support, renewable energy installations, distributed energy
technologies, transportation activities, recycling and waste management
efforts, and other activities approved by DOE.
The EECBG Program, authorized in Title V, Subtitle E of the Energy
Independence and Security Act (EISA)
[[Page 8853]]
and signed into law on December 19, 2007, was funded, for the first
time, by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The
Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Formula Grants was issued on
June 25, 2009 and closed on June 25, 2010.
The scope of the National Evaluation of EECBG involves a
combination of careful reviews of grant status reports and applications
(``engineering desk reviews''), conversations with DOE project
officers, and in-depth interviews with grant managers to assemble
critical data for answering the three questions of interest:
1. What is the total magnitude of energy and cost savings, and
other key outcomes, such as gross carbon emissions reduction and the
net number of jobs created or retained, achieved in Broad Program Areas
that cumulatively account for approximately 80 percent of total Formula
Grant expenditures in the 2009-2011 program years?
2. What is the magnitude of outcomes achieved by each of the most
heavily-funded Broad Program Areas within the EECBG portfolio?
3. What are the key factors influencing the magnitude of EECBG
outcomes?
These questions will be answered by evaluating a sample of 350
grant activity examples from a pool of direct grants and State sub-
grants, all issued as part of the EECBG program.
Scale of the Information Collection
The DOE Formula grants are well-defined and have been further
scrutinized by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)/DOE and its
contractors for categorization into Broad Program Areas and activities.
The evaluation team will complete the process of counting and
categorizing the State sub-grants. From these combined lists of grants,
sorted by Broad Program Area, sub-area, and activity, and from a set of
criteria developed by ORNL/DOE and its contractors, a sampling approach
will be applied to select 350 grants for study. That random sample of
projects will be taken from the six Broad Program Areas that, in
combination, account for over 80 percent of total EECBG Formula Grant
expenditures, which will allow valid inferences to be drawn for each
Broad Program Area examined.
Data collection will begin with a combination of careful reviews of
DOE program databases, grant status reports and applications
(``engineering desk reviews''), and conversations with DOE project
officers and Regional and State Coordinators. After this extensive
preliminary data collection effort, interviews will be conducted with
grant program managers and grant project managers for each sample
point. The two survey instruments proposed are:
1. Grant Activity-Level Contact Survey: Verifies activities
performed, measures installed, measure level data, and other relevant
project information necessary to calculate program impacts and other
metrics.
There will be 2 versions of this survey instrument: One for grant
activities targeted to residential dwellings, and one for non-
residential buildings.
2. Performance Indicators Survey: Collects information regarding
operational success factors to be combined with grant data and
secondary data on economic and other external factors for determining
what conditions and elements are necessary for a successful project.
Together, these surveys will involve 700 respondents and entail a
total burden of 642 hours. This calculation is based on the assumption
that the telephone surveys used in this study will require an average
of 55 minutes, depending on the individual survey instrument.
This evaluation approach will not include any data collection from
individual service recipients to estimate savings or outcomes. This
study will use data from the above-mentioned interviews plus additional
information that can be obtained from program records and secondary
sources, as well as engineering-based analytical methods, to produce
energy savings and outcome estimates.
The above-described data collection instruments will be
supplemented by additional records research and database review
activities provided by the Grant Program Managers and Local Grant
Activity Managers. These general recordkeeping activities will require
an estimated 487 hours. Combining the burden hours associated with
telephone surveys (642 hours) with the burden hours associated with
general records review (487 hours) produces a total estimated burden of
1,129 hours.
Two key steps are being taken to avoid duplicating the efforts of
any concurrent evaluations of EECBG activities: (1) Identifying results
from any EECBG grant evaluation efforts taking place at the State
level; and (2) coordinating with the Better Buildings Program
evaluation concerning any data collection already taking place during
the same time period that addresses EECBG grant activities.
The sample selection of Broad Program Areas and specific
programmatic activities within each Broad Program Area is scheduled to
be completed by June 2012. Data collection and calculation of outcomes
are scheduled to be completed by October 2012.
The detailed study design and work plan for the EECBG evaluation
has been available for public review since January 2012 at https://weatherization.ornl.gov/eecbg.shtml.
(5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 700.
(6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 700.
(7) Annual Estimated Total Number of Burden Hours (Interview and
Record Review): 1,129.
Statutory Authority: Title V, Subtitle E of the Energy
Independence and Security Act of 2007, codified at 42 U.S.C. 17151-
17158.
Issued in Washington, DC on February 1, 2012.
Henry C. Kelly,
Acting Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
[FR Doc. 2012-3535 Filed 2-14-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
