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

On July 2, 2009, the Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) published its Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Long-Term Management and Storage of Elemental Mercury (Mercury Storage EIS) (74 FR 31723). In that Notice of Intent, DOE invited public comments on the proposed scope of the Mercury Storage EIS during a 45-day public scoping period and announced seven public scoping meetings would be held in the vicinity of the sites proposed for evaluation in this EIS as candidate facilities for the long-term management and storage of elemental mercury generated within the United States. DOE is now announcing the addition of a public scoping meeting to be held on August 13, 2009, in Portland, Oregon, and an extension of the public scoping period. DOE also is correcting language contained in the July 2, 2009, Notice of Intent.

Western Area Power Administration (Western), a Federal power marketing agency of the Department of Energy, announces its Post-2009 Resource Pool Final Power Allocation developed under the requirements of Subpart CPower Marketing Initiative of the Energy Planning and Management Program (Program) Final Rule, 10 CFR part 905.

The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration have submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance, a proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paper Work Reduction Act of 1995. The proposed collection will assist in identifying systemic problems and dependency issues impacting the energy sector's system-wide reliability, survivability and resiliency. This will also enhance pre-event planning to ensure a robust and resilient energy infrastructure in which continuity of business and service reliability are strengthened with industry cooperation.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is adopting amended energy conservation standards for commercial packaged boilers and adopting a new energy conservation standard for water-cooled and evaporatively- cooled commercial package air conditioners and heat pumps with a cooling capacity at or above 240,000 Btu/h and less than 760,000 Btu/h at the efficiency levels specified in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE)/ Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) Standard 90.1-2007. DOE has determined that the ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007 efficiency levels for commercial packaged boilers are more stringent than the existing Federal energy conservation standards and will result in economic and energy savings compared to existing energy conservation standards. Furthermore, DOE has concluded that clear and convincing evidence does not exist, as would justify more-stringent standard levels than the efficiency levels in ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007. In addition, DOE is adopting related amendments to its test procedures for commercial packaged boilers.

On May 21, 2009, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to approve Reliability Standard PRC-023-1 (Transmission Relay Loadability Reliability Standard) developed by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. The date for filing comments on the Commission's NOPR is being extended at the request of the American Public Power Association, Edison Electric Institute, the Electric Power Supply Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

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.