Department of Energy December 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (DOE) will hold an informal public meeting to discuss and receive comments on the equipment classes that DOE plans to analyze for purposes of establishing energy conservation standards for small electric motors; the analytical framework, models, and tools that DOE is using to evaluate standards for these products; the results of preliminary analyses performed by DOE for these products; and potential energy conservation standard levels derived from these analyses that DOE could consider for these products. Also, DOE encourages written comments on these subjects. To inform stakeholders and facilitate this process, DOE has prepared an agenda, a preliminary Technical Support Document (preliminary TSD), and briefing materials, which are available at: https://www1.eere.energy.gov/ buildings/appliancestandards/commercial/smallelectricmotors.h tml.

This notice announces a meeting of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of these meetings be announced in the Federal Register.

The Western Area Power Administration (Western), a Federal power marketing agency of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), published its 2004 Power Marketing Plan (Marketing Plan) for Western's Sierra Nevada Customer Service Region (SNR) in the Federal Register on June 25, 1999 (64 FR 34417). The Marketing Plan specifies the terms and conditions under which Western will market power from the Central Valley Project (CVP) and the Washoe Project beginning January 1, 2005, and continuing through December 31, 2024. The Marketing Plan provides for a 2015 Resource Pool of up to 2 percent of SNR's marketable power resources. The 2015 Resource Pool will be available for power allocations to preference entities that meet the Eligibility Criteria. Western published its Proposed 2015 Resource Pool Size and Revised Eligibility Criteria in the Federal Register on May 5, 2008 (73 FR 24592). This notice responds to the comments received on the Proposed 2015 Resource Pool Size and Revised Eligibility Criteria and sets forth the Final 2015 Resource Pool Size and Revised Eligibility Criteria. This Federal Register notice is not a call for applications for Federal power allocations. Preference entities who wish to apply for an allocation of power from SNR must submit formal applications in response to Western's Call for 2015 Resource Pool Applications to be published under a separate notice. Application procedures will be set forth in the Call for 2015 Resource Pool Applications.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission affirms its basic determinations in Order No. 697-A, granting rehearing and clarification regarding certain revisions to its regulations and to the standards for obtaining and retaining market-based rate authority for sales of energy, capacity and ancillary services to ensure that such sales are just and reasonable.

The Commission withdraws a notice of proposed rulemaking, which proposed that, in the absence of specific contractual language enabling Commission review of proposed contractual modifications not agreed to by the signatories (or their successors) under a ``just and reasonable'' standard, the Commission would review such modifications under a ``public interest'' standard.

On October 17, 2008, DOE published a Notice of Availability and Public Hearings (73 FR 61845) for the Draft Global Nuclear Energy Partnership Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft GNEP PEIS, DOE/EIS-0396). That notice commenced a 60-day public comment period and provided the schedule for 13 public hearings to receive comments on the Draft GNEP PEIS. On December 10, 2008, DOE announced an extension of the public comment period by 90 days, i.e., through March 16, 2009 (73 FR 75087). Today, DOE announces that an additional public hearing on the Draft GNEP PEIS will be conducted beginning at 7 p.m. on January 12, 2009, in the Town of Pahrump in Nye County, NV.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Nevada Test Site. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is informing the public of its collection of historical data and creation of spreadsheet models to provide a benchmark estimate future unit sales of five lamp types (i.e., rough service lamps, vibration service lamps, 3-way incandescent lamps, 2,601-3,300 lumen general service incandescent lamps, and shatter resistant lamps). Relating to this activity, DOE prepared and is making available on its Web site: (1) a report that summarizes the methodology and presents the benchmark estimate of future unit sales for the five lamp types and (2) the spreadsheet model used to generate that estimate based on their respective historical annual growth rates. Both the report and the spreadsheet are available at: https:// www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliancestandards/residential /five lamptypes.html.

This Notice announces the Department of Energy (DOE) acceptance of claims in FY 2009 from eligible active uranium and thorium processing sites for reimbursement under Title X of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. For FY 2009, Congress has not completed the appropriation process for DOE, including funds for the reimbursement of certain costs of remedial action at these sites. If no funds are appropriated, the approved amount of claims submitted during FY 2008 and unpaid approved balances for claims submitted in prior years will be carried forward for payment in FY 2010, subject to the availability of funds. If FY 2009 funds are appropriated, and if the available funds are less than the total approved claims, these payments will be prorated based on the amount of available FY 2009 appropriations, unpaid approved claim balances (approximately $8.6 million), and claims received in May 2008 (approximately $34 million).