Department of Energy May 16, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance, a proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The Office of Science reports annually in the President's Budget Request the numbers of researchers, post docs, graduate students and technicians supported through Research Grants and Field Work Proposals (FWPs). However, these data are based on forecasts by the principal investigator (i.e., PIs) at the time the grants and FWPs were initially funded. These estimates are unreliable because they are based on the best guess of the PIs at the time of funding. While the PI's initial estimate could be accurate at the time of the request, the reliability of the initial estimate decreases as the project matures. Further, the forecasts by the PIs are subjective. Therefore, it is not possible to quantify the inaccuracies with any confidence. To better plan for future investments, the Office of Science must better understand the actual impact of its budget on the technical manpower supported. A short (approximately 17 minutes) web-based survey has been developed to collect actual workforce data from a small sample of researchers currently supported by the Office of Science. The result will be compared to proposal data to estimate the average and range of variation and to derive a statistically valid methodology for approximating budgetary impacts on the technical manpower supported.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is denying requests for rehearing of Order No. 668, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Public Utilities Including RTOs. The Commission is also publishing a technical correction to include page 302 of Form Nos. 1 and 3-Q which was missing from Order No. 668. Finally, the Commission is clarifying the proper way to net energy transactions when an entity participates in more than one RTO- administered energy market and the proper basis for determining whether net hourly energy transactions are to be reported as a net sale or a net purchase.

In this order on rehearing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) reaffirms its determinations in part and grants rehearing in part of Order No. 667, which amended the Commission's regulations to implement the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 and the enactment of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005.