Department of Energy February 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Commission's regulations, the Commission by its designee, the Executive Director, is updating its schedule of fees for the use of government lands. The yearly update is based on the most recent schedule of fees for the use of linear rights- of-way prepared by the United States Forest Service. Since the next fiscal year will cover the period from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009 the fees in this notice will become effective October 1, 2008. The fees will apply to fiscal year 2009 annual charges for the use of government lands. The Commission has concluded, with the concurrence of the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of OMB that this rule is not a ``major rule'' as defined in section 251 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C. 804(2).

The Western Area Power Administration (Western), an agency of the DOE intends to prepare a joint environmental impact statement/ environmental impact report (EIS/EIR) for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the proposed Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC) Transmission Project (Project) in California. Western is issuing this Notice to inform the public and interested parties about the proposed Project, conduct a public scoping process, and invite the public to comment on the scope, proposed action, alternatives, and other issues to be addressed in the EIS/EIR. The EIS/EIR will address the construction, maintenance, and operation of the proposed Project, which would include building and upgrading about 600 miles of 230-kilovolt (kV) and 500-kV transmission lines and associated equipment and facilities in northern California. Portions of the proposed Project may affect floodplains and wetlands in the area. Western and TANC will hold public scoping meetings in 12 locations in the Project area during the public scoping period. At the scoping meetings, Western and TANC will share additional information on the proposed Project and receive comments and suggestions on the scope of the EIS/EIR.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Western Area Power Administration (Western), announces its decision to modify three existing Western substation facilities and construct one new tap facility to accommodate interconnection requests from Minnkota Power Cooperative, Central Power Electric Cooperative, and East River Electric Power Cooperative (the Applicants). The modifications, construction, and interconnections are connected actions to the TransCanada Keystone Oil Pipeline Project, the environmental impacts of which were analyzed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone Oil Pipeline Project issued by the Department of State (DOS) \1\ and adopted by DOE Western as DOE/EIS-0410 on January 21, 2009.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge Reservation. 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's (DOE) Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) will conduct a Technical Workshop to receive input from subject matter experts on the historical transmission data in the Western and Eastern Interconnections and on studies of future transmission projections within the two Interconnections. The input received will be used by DOE in preparing the 2009 Congestion Study which will be submitted to Congress by August 8, 2009. Specific issues to be addressed at the Technical Workshop include: Region-specific interpretation of congestion data; congestion metrics; and experiences and issues associated with region-wide planning. No fee is required to attend the Technical Workshop; however, pre-registration is requested for meeting planning purposes. Additional information, including a registration link, is available at https:// www.congestion09.anl.gov/.

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.