Department of Energy June 10, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (DOE) announces its decision to implement its Proposed Action and Preferred Alternative as identified in the Port Angeles-Juan de Fuca Transmission Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0378, October 2007). Sea Breeze Olympic Converter LP (Sea Breeze) applied to DOE for authorizations and approvals necessary to construct the United States (U.S.) portion of an international electric power transmission cable from the greater Victoria area, British Columbia, Canada, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles, Washington, United States. Under the Proposed Action, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), an organizational element within DOE, will offer contract terms to Sea Breeze for interconnection of the cable with the Federal Columbia River Transmission System, which is owned and operated by BPA. Additionally, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE), another organizational element within DOE, will issue a Presidential permit to Sea Breeze to construct, operate, maintain, and connect the 150,000-volt (150-kV) direct current (DC) submarine cable that crosses the U.S.-Canadian border. BPA's Proposed Action includes the expansion of BPA's Port Angeles Substation to accommodate the interconnection. The interconnection will allow power flow over BPA's transmission system to the extent that capacity on the system is available. The Proposed Action does not include transmission service over BPA's system, which must be requested separately. The Proposed Action included two short routing options (A and B) for the transmission cable as it enters BPA's substation property; BPA has chosen the Option A route. In reaching this decision, DOE considered the low potential for environmental impacts in the United States from constructing, operating, maintaining, and connecting the project, the lack of adverse impacts to the reliability of the U.S. electric power supply system, and the lack of major issues of concern to the public.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is today publishing a final rule to amend regulations that prohibit the unauthorized dissemination of certain unclassified but sensitive information identified as Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (UCNI). DOE is amending these regulations to clarify the types of information that may be identified as UCNI; to prevent overly-broad application of UCNI controls; and to streamline the UCNI program by simplifying the process for identifying information as UCNI.