Department of Energy January 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.

In compliance with the requirements of section 3506(c)(2)(a) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the information collection described below.

On November 20, 2008, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a Final Rule in Order No. 720 which amended part 284 of its regulations to require, in relevant part, major non-interstate natural gas pipelines to post, on a daily basis, certain information regarding scheduled volumes in natural gas to be transported. The date for major non-interstate pipelines to comply with the requirements of Order No. 720 is being extended at the request of the American Gas Association.

The DOE published on November 26, 2008, in the Federal Register, a notice of inquiry concerning technology practices at DOE laboratories. The DOE invited comments to published questions concerning technology transfer practices at DOE laboratories. The comment period was to continue for 60 days from the date of the publication of the Federal Register notice (till January 26, 2009). This Federal Register notice extends the comment period till March 26, 2009, to allow additional time for the public to respond to the questions raised in the Notice of Inquiry.

FPL Energy Power Marketing, Inc. (PMI) has applied for authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Mexico pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act.

In compliance with the requirements of section 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) has submitted the information collections described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review of these information collection requirements. Any interested person may file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those comments to the Commission as explained below. The Commission received no comments in response to earlier Federal Register notices \1\ and has made this notation in its submissions to OMB.

Section 132 of Public Law 109-103 (2005) authorized and directed the Secretary of the Army to implement alternatives BS-3 and NF-7, as described in the White River Minimum Flows Reallocation Study Report, Arkansas and Missouri, dated July 2004. The law states that the Administrator, Southwestern Power Administration (Southwestern), in consultation with the project licensee and the relevant state public utility commissions, shall determine any impacts on electric energy and capacity generated at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Project No. 2221 caused by the storage reallocation at Bull Shoals Lake. Further, the licensee of Project No. 2221 shall be fully compensated by the Corps of Engineers for those impacts on the basis of the present value of the estimated future lifetime replacement costs of the electrical energy and capacity at the time of implementation of the White River Minimum Flows project. The law also states that losses to the Federal hydropower purpose of the Bull Shoals and Norfork Projects shall be offset by a reduction in the costs allocated to the Federal hydropower purpose. Further, such reduction shall be determined by the Administrator of Southwestern on the basis of the present value of the estimated future lifetime replacement cost of the electrical energy and capacity at the time of implementation of the White River Minimum Flows project. Southwestern's draft determination was published by Federal Register Notice (73 FR 6717) dated February 5, 2008. Written comments were invited through March 6, 2008. All public comments received were considered, and Southwestern's draft determination was revised as necessary to incorporate the public comments. Since there were significant changes to Southwestern's draft determination, Southwestern published a proposed determination for additional public review and comment prior to its final determination. Southwestern's proposed determination was published by Federal Register Notice (73 FR 38198) on July 3, 2008. Written comments were invited through August 4, 2008. After receiving several requests for additional time to provide public comments, Southwestern reopened the public comment period through September 18, 2008. All public comments received were considered in revising the proposed determination, and Southwestern is publishing notification of its final determination. Southwestern's final determination is fully documented in its Final Determination Report dated January 2009, which was prepared in consultation with the licensee and the relevant public service commissions. Southwestern's Final Determination Report documents the procedure to be used to calculate the present value of the future lifetime replacement cost of the electrical energy and capacity lost due to the White River Minimum Flows project at the non-Federal FERC Project No. 2221 and the Federal Bull Shoals and Norfork projects. The actual hydropower compensation values are to be calculated using the method presented in the final determination and current values for the specified parameters based on the official implementation date. Assuming a January 1, 2011, date of implementation for the White River Minimum Flows project and November 2008 values for the specified parameters, Southwestern's determination results in a present value for the estimated future lifetime replacement costs of the electrical energy and capacity at FERC Project No. 2221 of $41,319,400. Southwestern's determination results in a present value for the estimated future lifetime replacement costs of the electrical energy and capacity for Federal hydropower of $109,920,200. An electronic copy of Southwestern's Final Determination Report is available on Southwestern's Web site at https://www.swpa.gov/pdfs/WRMF_ SWPA_FinalDeterminationReport.pdf.

The Department of Energy is in the process of making a determination as to whether ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 would save energy in commercial buildings. In doing so, we are performing a comparative analysis of the 2007 edition of that standard to the 2004 edition and seeking input on our considered approach to carrying out that analysis.