Department of Energy January 30, 2009 – 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 Department of Energy is authorized to enter into voluntary agreements with U.S. industry under section 106 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT). The proposed data collection will be used to evaluate the success of the voluntary agreements and to report results to Congress. EPACT requires DOE to report to Congress on the effectiveness of the voluntary commitments to reduce industrial energy intensity. The reports to Congress should include an evaluation of the success of the voluntary agreements to reduce participant energy intensity, and independent verification of a sample of energy savings estimates provided by participants. EPACT directs the reports to be submitted in 2012 and 2017. In order to reduce the level of respondent burden required by participants, DOE has designed a data collection instrument which relies primarily upon pre-existing utility and energy-use data. In addition to information on company contacts and identification of participating plants, DOE is asking for a breakout of energy use by fuel type (in million metric British Thermal Units) aggregated across all of the plants that are voluntarily participating. DOE is asking for the annual change in the participants' aggregate energy intensity in units of percentage. Energy intensity may be calculated with existing organizational methods, or DOE's baselining tool which will be offered as a calculator. The calculator is not considered to be a data collection instrument. Finally, participants are asked to describe energy savings projects in simple, narrative form allowing respondents to provide summary information rather than detailed responses. DOE intends to calculate energy savings using the energy-use data from the baseline and current year, along with the baseline adjustment factor. As a result of comments received during the 60 Day Federal Register Notice, DOE has increased the estimate of burden hours on respondent companies from 3 hours per plant to 10 hours per plant. This reflects the estimate received from the public, as well as the burden estimate used by the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS). While MECS collects similar information, it does not require manufacturers to provide an energy intensity number which is required for EPACT 2005.