Department of Agriculture October 18, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice of Solicitation of Applications for the Rural Energy for America Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2017
Document Number: 2016-25163
Type: Notice
Date: 2016-10-18
Agency: Department of Agriculture, Rural Business-Cooperative Service
The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (the Agency) announces the acceptance of applications under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) which is designed to help agricultural producers and rural small businesses reduce energy costs and consumption and help meet the Nation's critical energy needs. REAP have two types of funding assistance: (1) Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Assistance, and (2) Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance Grants. The Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance provides grants and guaranteed loans to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements to their operations. Eligible renewable energy systems for REAP provide energy from: Wind, solar, renewable biomass (including anaerobic digesters), small hydro-electric, ocean, geothermal, or hydrogen derived from these renewable resources. The Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance Grant is available to a unit of State, Tribal, or local government; instrumentality of a State, Tribal, or local government; institution of higher education; rural electric cooperative; a public power entity; or a council, as defined in 16 U.S.C. 3451. The recipient of grant funds, grantee, will establish a program to assist agricultural producers and rural small businesses with evaluating the energy efficiency and the potential to incorporate renewable energy technologies into their operations.
Dairyland Power Cooperative: Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Hold Public Scoping Meetings
Document Number: 2016-25132
Type: Notice
Date: 2016-10-18
Agency: Department of Agriculture, Rural Utilities Service
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and hold public scoping meetings in connection with possible impacts related to the Cardinal-Hickory Creek Transmission Line Project proposed by Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC). Other utilities participating in the Project are American Transmission Company LLC, by its corporate manager ATC Management Inc. and ITC Midwest LLC. The proposal consists of the construction of a 345-kilovolt (kV) transmission line and associated infrastructure connecting the Hickory Creek Substation in Dubuque County, Iowa, with the Cardinal Substation in the Town of Middleton, Wisconsin (near Madison, Wisconsin). The Project also includes a new intermediate 345/138-kV substation near the Village of Montfort in either Grant County or Iowa County, Wisconsin. The total length of the 345-kV transmission lines associated with the proposed project will be approximately 125 miles. DPC and the other project participants have identified proposed and alternate segments and locations for transmission lines and associated facilities and for the intermediate substation. Dairyland Power Cooperative is requesting RUS to provide financing for its portion of the proposed project.
Notice of Proposed Changes to Section I of the Wisconsin Field Office Technical Guide
Document Number: 2016-25047
Type: Notice
Date: 2016-10-18
Agency: Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service
NRCS is proposing to revise Section I of the Wisconsin Field Office Technical Guide to include ``Wisconsin Wetland Determination Methods'' which will replace the existing ``Wisconsin Wetland Mapping Conventions issued May 1, 1998'' (commonly referred as State Wetland Mapping Conventions). The Wisconsin Wetland Determination Methods will be used as part of the technical documents and procedures to conduct wetland determinations on agriculture land as part of the Food Security Act of 1985 (as amended).
New Equipment Contract, RUS Contract Form 395 for Telecommunications and Broadband Borrowers
Document Number: 2016-24945
Type: Rule
Date: 2016-10-18
Agency: Department of Agriculture, Rural Utilities Service
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), hereinafter referred to as RUS or the Agency, is issuing a final rule to streamline the contractual process for equipment procurement by replacing type-specific equipment contracts, RUS Forms 397, 398, 525, 545, and associated documents (Forms 231, 396, 396a, 517, 525a, 744, 752a, 754, and addenda) with a new, unified Equipment Contract, RUS Contract Form 395 and associated close-out documents (Forms 395a, 395b, 395c and 395d) and by removing construction standards RUS Forms 397b, 397c, 397d, 397f, 397g, 397h. On October 1, 2015, RUS published a Request for Comments in the Federal Register, to establish a new equipment contract and associated policies for Telecommunications and Broadband Borrowers, Equipment Contract, RUS Contract Form 395 (RUS Contract Form 395).
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program
Document Number: 2016-24504
Type: Rule
Date: 2016-10-18
Agency: Department of Agriculture, Commodity Credit Corporation
NRCS published an interim rule, with request for comments, on February 27, 2015, to implement the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) that was authorized by the Agricultural Act of 2014. NRCS received 1,055 comments from 102 respondents to the interim rule. In this document, NRCS responds to comments, makes adjustments to the rule in response to some of the comments received, and issues a final rule for ACEP implementation.
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