January 4, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains final regulations that provide guidance on the tax treatment of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities issued with more than a de minimis amount of premium. This document also contains temporary regulations that provide guidance on the tax treatment of a debt instrument with a bond premium carryforward in the holder's final accrual period, including a Treasury bill acquired at a premium. The regulations in this document provide guidance to holders of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities and other debt instruments. The text of the temporary regulations in this document also serves as the text of the proposed regulations (REG-140437-12) set forth in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS or Agency) proposes to implement two civil monetary penalty provisions. First, RHS proposes to amend its regulations to create a new section, for imposing civil monetary penalties under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 1490s (section 543 of the Housing Act of 1949, as amended (Act)) (Housing Act CMP). Second, RHS proposes to adopt the USDA civil monetary penalty provisions for the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act of 1986 (PFCRA) in a revision to an existing section (PFCRA CMP). The new section will include an amended version of the existing Housing Act CMP provision together with additional language providing procedural guidance.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is initiating a rulemaking and data collection process to consider amendments to DOE's test procedure for residential furnaces and boilers. Because DOE has recently completed a test procedure rulemaking for the standby mode and off mode energy consumption of these products, the primary focus of this rulemaking will be on active mode operation. This rulemaking is intended to fulfill DOE's statutory obligation to review its test procedures for covered products at least once every seven years. To inform interested parties and to facilitate the process, DOE has gathered data and has identified several issues that might warrant modifications to the currently applicable test procedures, including topics on which DOE is particularly interested in receiving comment. In overview, the issues outlined in this document mainly concern reducing the test burden, test conditions impacting the annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) metric, test conditions impacting non-AFUE efficiency parameters, the performance test for automatic means in boilers, harmonization of standards, alternative methods for furnace/boiler efficiency determination, and scope. These topics (and others which commenters identify) are ones which DOE anticipates may lead to proposed test procedure amendments in a subsequent notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR). DOE welcomes written comments from the public on any subject related to the test procedures for residential furnaces and boilers, including topics not specifically raised in this RFI.

The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on the navigable waters of Hampton Harbor in the vicinity of Hampton Harbor Bridge due to a partially submerged dredge excavator obstructing the channel. This temporary final rule is necessary to protect vessels transiting the area from the obstruction. This zone is intended to prohibit vessels from coming within 100 yards of point 42 53'763'' N, 070 48'986'' W until the obstruction is cleared. Persons or vessels may not enter into this zone unless authorized by the Captain of the Port, Sector Northern New England.

In this Final Rule, pursuant to section 215 of the Federal Power Act, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) approves modifications to the currently-effective definition of ``bulk electric system'' developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission-certified Electric Reliability Organization. The Commission finds that the modified definition of ``bulk electric system'' removes language allowing for regional discretion in the currently-effective bulk electric system definition and establishes a bright-line threshold that includes all facilities operated at or above 100 kV. The modified definition also identifies specific categories of facilities and configurations as inclusions and exclusions to provide clarity in the definition of ``bulk electric system.'' In this Final Rule, the Commission also approves: NERC's revisions to its Rules of Procedure, which create an exception process to add elements to, or remove elements from, the definition of ``bulk electric system'' on a case-by-case basis; NERC's form entitled ``Detailed Information To Support an Exception Request'' that entities will use to support requests for exception from the ``bulk electric system'' definition; and NERC's implementation plan for the revised ``bulk electric system'' definition.