Public Workshop on Corporate Average Fuel Economy Reporting Templates, 5936-5937 [2022-02088]

Download as PDF 5936 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 22 / Wednesday, February 2, 2022 / Notices 2020 CAFE final rule, NHTSA established a new standardized template National Highway Traffic Safety for reporting PMY and MMY Administration information, as specified in 49 CFR 537.7(b) and (c), as well as for the Public Workshop on Corporate supplementary information required by Average Fuel Economy Reporting 49 CFR 537.8. The new template allows Templates manufacturers to build out the required confidential versions of CAFE reports AGENCY: National Highway Traffic specified in 49 CFR part 537 and to Safety Administration (NHTSA), produce automatically the required nonDepartment of Transportation (DOT). confidential versions by clicking a ACTION: Notification to postpone public button within the template. The workshop. standardized template assists manufacturers in providing the agency SUMMARY: This notice announces that with all necessary data, thereby helping the National Highway Traffic Safety manufacturers to ensure they are Administration (NHTSA) will be complying with CAFE regulations. The postponing the workshop originally template organizes the required data in scheduled for January 27, 2022. The workshop was intended to present three a manner consistent with NHTSA and new compliance reporting templates for EPA regulations and simplifies the reporting process by incorporating the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standardized responses consistent with (CAFE) Program. The workshop will be those provided to EPA. The template rescheduled for later this year. collects the relevant data, calculates DATES: NHTSA will reschedule the intermediate and final values in workshop for later this year. accordance with EPA and NHTSA FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If methodologies, and aggregates all the you have questions concerning the final values required by NHTSA public workshop postponement, please regulations in a single summary contact NHTSA staff at worksheet. Thus, NHTSA believes that NHTSA.Communication@dot.gov or the standardized template will benefit Chris Lamance at (202) 366–9525. For both the agency and manufacturers by any legal questions, contact Michael helping to avoid reporting errors, such Kuppersmith at michael.kuppersmith@ dot.gov or (202) 366–9957. For questions as data omissions and miscalculations, and will ultimately simplify and concerning the workshop discussions streamline reporting. NHTSA requires contact Maurice Hicks at that manufacturers use the standardized Maurice.Hicks@dot.gov or (202) 366– Projection Reporting Template for all 5289. PMY, MMY, and supplementary CAFE SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 49 CFR reports beginning in MY 2023. NHTSA part 537, ‘‘Automotive Fuel Economy also modified its existing compliance Report,’’ requires manufacturers to database to accept and import the provide early model year projections on standardized template and automobiles demonstrating how they automatically aggregate manufacturers’ intend to comply with CAFE standards. data. This allows NHTSA to execute its The regulation requires manufacturers regulatory obligations to the public to submit a pre-model year report by more efficiently and effectively. Overall, December 31st before the model year the template helps to ensure compliance and a mid-model year report by July with data requirements under EPCA/ 31st of the model year. When NHTSA EISA and drastically reduce the received and reviewed manufacturers’ industry and government’s burden for projection reports for MYs 2013 through reporting in accordance with the 2015, the agency observed that most did Paperwork Reduction Act.3 The not conform to the requirements reporting template is available for specified in Part 537. In a 2015 notice download through the PIC located at: of proposed rulemaking, NHTSA https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home— proposed to amend Part 537 to require see ‘‘Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE Projections Reporting Template’’. a new data format for manufacturers’ To reduce the burden on all parties, CAFE projection reporting template.1 encourage compliance, and facilitate However, NHTSA did not adopt the quicker NHTSA credit transaction proposed data format from the 2015 approval, in April 2020 final rule, proposed rule after receiving adverse NHTSA added a new template to comments from manufacturers.2 standardize the information parties After identifying the sources of submit to the agency to request a credit manufacturers’ concerns, in the April transaction. Often manufacturers jspears on DSK121TN23PROD with NOTICES1 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 1 80 2 81 FR 40540 (Jul. 13, 2015). FR 73958 (Oct. 25, 2016). VerDate Sep<11>2014 21:31 Feb 01, 2022 3 44 Jkt 256001 PO 00000 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. Frm 00158 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 inconsistently submit the information required by 49 CFR 536.8, making it difficult for NHTSA to process transactions. The credit transaction template is a simple spreadsheet that credit holders and trading parties fill out. When completed, parties are able to click a button on the spreadsheet to generate a credit transaction summary, and if applicable, credit trade confirmation, the latter of which needs to be signed by both trading entities. The credit trade confirmation serves as an acknowledgement that the parties have agreed to trade credits. The completed credit trade summary, and a PDF copy of the signed trade confirmation must be submitted to NHTSA. Using the Credit Transaction Template simplifies the credit trading process for OVSC and manufacturers, and helps to ensure that trading parties follow the requirements for a credit transaction found in 49 CFR 536.8(a).4 Additionally, the credit trade confirmation includes an acknowledgement of the ‘‘error or fraud’’ provisions in 49 CFR 536.8(f)– (g), and the finality provision of 49 CFR 536.8(g). The credit transaction template is available for download through the PIC located at: https://one.nhtsa.gov/ cafe_pic/home—see ‘‘Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE Credit Transaction Template’’. Finally, NHTSA adopted requirements in the 2020 final rule requiring manufacturers to submit the costs of all credit trade contracts to the agency starting September 1, 2022. NHTSA intends to use this information to determine the true cost of compliance for all manufacturers. This information would allow NHTSA to better assess the impact of its regulations on the industry and provide more insightful information in developing future rulemakings. NHTSA also adopted requirements allowing manufacturers to submit the information confidentially, in accordance with 49 CFR part 512.5 This confidential information would be held by secure electronic means in NHTSA’s database systems. As for public information, NHTSA intends to use the information to provide more credit reports on the PIC such as aggregated credit transactions or data comparable to the credit information which EPA makes available to the public. In response to NHTSA new templates, manufacturers have identified errors and offered suggestions for improvements. As a result, in the 4 Submitting a properly completed template and accompanying transaction letter will satisfy the trading requirements in 49 CFR part 536. 5 See also 49 U.S.C. 32910(c). E:\FR\FM\02FEN1.SGM 02FEN1 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 22 / Wednesday, February 2, 2022 / Notices August 2021 CAFE NPRM, 6 NHTSA proposed changes to its new reporting and credit templates as well as established a new standardized template to collect information on the monetary and non-monetary costs of credit trades. NHTSA has identified a series of monetary and non-monetary factors which it believes to be important to the costs associated with credit trading in the CAFE program which predicated the development of its new credit value template.7 The agency believes this information will allow for a better assessment of the true costs of compliance. NHTSA further notes that greater government oversight is needed over the CAFE credit market and it needs to understand the full range of complexity in transactions, monetary and non-monetary, in addition to the range of partnerships and cooperative agreements between credit account holders—which may impact the price of credit trades.8 NHTSA proposed that manufacturers should start using both credit templates starting September 1, 2022. Note, the credit value template is available for download through the PIC located at: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_ pic/home—see ‘‘Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE Credit Value Reporting Template’’. In the August 2021 rulemaking, NHTSA also committed to demonstrate its templates through a workshop designed to give manufacturers an open forum for communicating directly with the agency. Otto G. Matheke, III, Director of the Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance. [FR Doc. 2022–02088 Filed 2–1–22; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910–59–P DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [Docket No. PHMSA–2022–0005] Pipeline Safety: Information Collection Activities Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), DOT. ACTION: Notice and request for comments. jspears on DSK121TN23PROD with NOTICES1 AGENCY: 6 https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA2021-0053-0012/comment. 7 UCS, Detailed Comments, NHTSA–2018–0067– 12039; Jason Schwartz, Detailed Comments, NHTSA–2018–0067–12162. 8 Honda, Detailed Comments, NHTSA–2018– 0067–11819. VerDate Sep<11>2014 21:31 Feb 01, 2022 Jkt 256001 In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104–13, PHMSA invites public comments about the Agency’s intention to request Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval to renew four information collections that are scheduled to expire in 2022. PHMSA has reviewed each information collection and considers them vital to maintaining pipeline safety. As such, PHMSA will request renewal from OMB, without change, for each information collection. DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before April 4, 2022. ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted in the following ways: E-Gov Website: https:// www.regulations.gov. This site allows the public to submit comments on any Federal Register notice issued by any agency. Fax: 1–202–493–2251. Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Room W12–140, Washington, DC 20590–0001. Hand Delivery: Room W12–140 on the ground level of DOT, West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. Instructions: Identify the docket number, PHMSA–2022–0005, at the beginning of your comments. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to https:// www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. You should know that anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). Therefore, you may want to review DOT’s complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000, (65 FR 19477) or visit https://www.regulations.gov before submitting any such comments. Docket: For access to the docket or to read background documents or comments, go to https:// www.regulations.gov at any time or to Room W12–140 on the ground level of DOT, West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. If you wish to receive confirmation of receipt of your written comments, please include a self-addressed, SUMMARY: PO 00000 Frm 00159 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 5937 stamped postcard with the following statement: ‘‘Comments on: PHMSA– 2022–0005.’’ The Docket Clerk will date stamp the postcard prior to returning it to you via the U.S. mail. Please note that due to delays in the delivery of U.S. mail to Federal offices in Washington, DC, we recommend that persons consider an alternative method (internet, fax, or professional delivery service) of submitting comments to the docket and ensuring their timely receipt at DOT. Privacy Act Statement: DOT may solicit comments from the public regarding certain general notices. DOT posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information the commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as described in the system of records notice (DOT/ALL– 14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at www.dot.gov/privacy. Confidential Business Information: Confidential Business Information (CBI) is commercial or financial information that is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public disclosure. If your comments responsive to this notice contain commercial or financial information that is customarily treated as private, that you actually treat as private, and that is relevant or responsive to this notice, it is important that you clearly designate the submitted comments as CBI. Pursuant to 49 CFR 190.343, you may ask PHMSA to give confidential treatment to information you give to the Agency by taking the following steps: (1) Mark each page of the original document submission containing CBI as ‘‘Confidential’’; (2) send PHMSA, along with the original document, a second copy of the original document with the CBI deleted; and (3) explain why the information you are submitting is CBI. Unless you are notified otherwise, PHMSA will treat such marked submissions as confidential under the FOIA, and they will not be placed in the public docket of this notice. Submissions containing CBI should be sent to Angela Hill, DOT, PHMSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, PHP–30, Washington, DC 20590–0001. Any commentary PHMSA receives that is not specifically designated as CBI will be placed in the public docket for this matter. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angela Hill by telephone at 202–366– 1246 or by email at Angela.Hill@dot.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) section 1320.8(d), requires PHMSA to E:\FR\FM\02FEN1.SGM 02FEN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 2, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5936-5937]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-02088]



[[Page 5936]]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration


Public Workshop on Corporate Average Fuel Economy Reporting 
Templates

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notification to postpone public workshop.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice announces that the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration (NHTSA) will be postponing the workshop originally 
scheduled for January 27, 2022. The workshop was intended to present 
three new compliance reporting templates for the Corporate Average Fuel 
Economy (CAFE) Program. The workshop will be rescheduled for later this 
year.

DATES: NHTSA will reschedule the workshop for later this year.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions concerning the 
public workshop postponement, please contact NHTSA staff at 
[email protected] or Chris Lamance at (202) 366-9525. For any 
legal questions, contact Michael Kuppersmith at 
[email protected] or (202) 366-9957. For questions concerning 
the workshop discussions contact Maurice Hicks at [email protected] 
or (202) 366-5289.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 49 CFR part 537, ``Automotive Fuel Economy 
Report,'' requires manufacturers to provide early model year 
projections on automobiles demonstrating how they intend to comply with 
CAFE standards. The regulation requires manufacturers to submit a pre-
model year report by December 31st before the model year and a mid-
model year report by July 31st of the model year. When NHTSA received 
and reviewed manufacturers' projection reports for MYs 2013 through 
2015, the agency observed that most did not conform to the requirements 
specified in Part 537. In a 2015 notice of proposed rulemaking, NHTSA 
proposed to amend Part 537 to require a new data format for 
manufacturers' CAFE projection reporting template.\1\ However, NHTSA 
did not adopt the proposed data format from the 2015 proposed rule 
after receiving adverse comments from manufacturers.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 80 FR 40540 (Jul. 13, 2015).
    \2\ 81 FR 73958 (Oct. 25, 2016).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    After identifying the sources of manufacturers' concerns, in the 
April 2020 CAFE final rule, NHTSA established a new standardized 
template for reporting PMY and MMY information, as specified in 49 CFR 
537.7(b) and (c), as well as for the supplementary information required 
by 49 CFR 537.8. The new template allows manufacturers to build out the 
required confidential versions of CAFE reports specified in 49 CFR part 
537 and to produce automatically the required non-confidential versions 
by clicking a button within the template. The standardized template 
assists manufacturers in providing the agency with all necessary data, 
thereby helping manufacturers to ensure they are complying with CAFE 
regulations. The template organizes the required data in a manner 
consistent with NHTSA and EPA regulations and simplifies the reporting 
process by incorporating standardized responses consistent with those 
provided to EPA. The template collects the relevant data, calculates 
intermediate and final values in accordance with EPA and NHTSA 
methodologies, and aggregates all the final values required by NHTSA 
regulations in a single summary worksheet. Thus, NHTSA believes that 
the standardized template will benefit both the agency and 
manufacturers by helping to avoid reporting errors, such as data 
omissions and miscalculations, and will ultimately simplify and 
streamline reporting. NHTSA requires that manufacturers use the 
standardized Projection Reporting Template for all PMY, MMY, and 
supplementary CAFE reports beginning in MY 2023. NHTSA also modified 
its existing compliance database to accept and import the standardized 
template and automatically aggregate manufacturers' data. This allows 
NHTSA to execute its regulatory obligations to the public more 
efficiently and effectively. Overall, the template helps to ensure 
compliance with data requirements under EPCA/EISA and drastically 
reduce the industry and government's burden for reporting in accordance 
with the Paperwork Reduction Act.\3\ The reporting template is 
available for download through the PIC located at: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE 
Projections Reporting Template''.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    To reduce the burden on all parties, encourage compliance, and 
facilitate quicker NHTSA credit transaction approval, in April 2020 
final rule, NHTSA added a new template to standardize the information 
parties submit to the agency to request a credit transaction. Often 
manufacturers inconsistently submit the information required by 49 CFR 
536.8, making it difficult for NHTSA to process transactions. The 
credit transaction template is a simple spreadsheet that credit holders 
and trading parties fill out. When completed, parties are able to click 
a button on the spreadsheet to generate a credit transaction summary, 
and if applicable, credit trade confirmation, the latter of which needs 
to be signed by both trading entities. The credit trade confirmation 
serves as an acknowledgement that the parties have agreed to trade 
credits. The completed credit trade summary, and a PDF copy of the 
signed trade confirmation must be submitted to NHTSA. Using the Credit 
Transaction Template simplifies the credit trading process for OVSC and 
manufacturers, and helps to ensure that trading parties follow the 
requirements for a credit transaction found in 49 CFR 536.8(a).\4\ 
Additionally, the credit trade confirmation includes an acknowledgement 
of the ``error or fraud'' provisions in 49 CFR 536.8(f)-(g), and the 
finality provision of 49 CFR 536.8(g). The credit transaction template 
is available for download through the PIC located at: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE 
Credit Transaction Template''.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ Submitting a properly completed template and accompanying 
transaction letter will satisfy the trading requirements in 49 CFR 
part 536.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, NHTSA adopted requirements in the 2020 final rule 
requiring manufacturers to submit the costs of all credit trade 
contracts to the agency starting September 1, 2022. NHTSA intends to 
use this information to determine the true cost of compliance for all 
manufacturers. This information would allow NHTSA to better assess the 
impact of its regulations on the industry and provide more insightful 
information in developing future rulemakings. NHTSA also adopted 
requirements allowing manufacturers to submit the information 
confidentially, in accordance with 49 CFR part 512.\5\ This 
confidential information would be held by secure electronic means in 
NHTSA's database systems. As for public information, NHTSA intends to 
use the information to provide more credit reports on the PIC such as 
aggregated credit transactions or data comparable to the credit 
information which EPA makes available to the public.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \5\ See also 49 U.S.C. 32910(c).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In response to NHTSA new templates, manufacturers have identified 
errors and offered suggestions for improvements. As a result, in the

[[Page 5937]]

August 2021 CAFE NPRM,\6\ NHTSA proposed changes to its new reporting 
and credit templates as well as established a new standardized template 
to collect information on the monetary and non-monetary costs of credit 
trades. NHTSA has identified a series of monetary and non-monetary 
factors which it believes to be important to the costs associated with 
credit trading in the CAFE program which predicated the development of 
its new credit value template.\7\ The agency believes this information 
will allow for a better assessment of the true costs of compliance. 
NHTSA further notes that greater government oversight is needed over 
the CAFE credit market and it needs to understand the full range of 
complexity in transactions, monetary and non-monetary, in addition to 
the range of partnerships and cooperative agreements between credit 
account holders--which may impact the price of credit trades.\8\ NHTSA 
proposed that manufacturers should start using both credit templates 
starting September 1, 2022. Note, the credit value template is 
available for download through the PIC located at: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE 
Credit Value Reporting Template''.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \6\ https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2021-0053-0012/comment.
    \7\ UCS, Detailed Comments, NHTSA-2018-0067-12039; Jason 
Schwartz, Detailed Comments, NHTSA-2018-0067-12162.
    \8\ Honda, Detailed Comments, NHTSA-2018-0067-11819.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In the August 2021 rulemaking, NHTSA also committed to demonstrate 
its templates through a workshop designed to give manufacturers an open 
forum for communicating directly with the agency.

Otto G. Matheke, III,
Director of the Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2022-02088 Filed 2-1-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P


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