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

The Western Area Power Administration (Western) is proposing revised rates for Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin ProgramEastern Division (P-SMBPED) firm electric and firm peaking power service. Current rates, under Rate Schedules P-SED-F10 and P-SED-FP10, extend through December 31, 2013, but are not sufficient to meet the P-SMBPED revenue requirements. The proposed rates will provide sufficient revenue to pay all annual costs, including interest expense, and repay investments within the allowable periods. Western will prepare and make available a brochure that provides detailed information on the proposed rates. The proposed rates, under Rate Schedules P-SED-F11 and P-SED- FP11, would go into effect on January 1, 2010, and would remain in effect through December 31, 2014, or until superseded. Publication of this Federal Register notice begins the formal process for the proposed rate adjustment.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Portsmouth. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. No. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing that pursuant to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), it is amending the energy conservation standards for certain general service fluorescent lamps and incandescent reflector lamps. DOE is also adopting new energy conservation standards and amendments to its test procedures for certain general service fluorescent lamps not currently covered by standards. Additionally, DOE is amending the definitions of certain terms found in the general provisions. It has determined that energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy, and are technologically feasible and economically justified.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a separately organized agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is issuing this Record of Decision (ROD) for the continued operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico, pursuant to the Final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Continued Operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, DOE/EIS-0380 (SWEIS) (73 FR 28453, May 16, 2008). This ROD is the second ROD based on the information and analyses contained in the SWEIS and other factors, including comments received on the SWEIS, costs, technical and security considerations, and the missions of NNSA. These decision factors also include results from the analyses in the October 24, 2008, Final Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0236-S4, 73 FR 63460) (Complex Transformation SPEIS) and its two RODs (73 FR 77644, 73 FR 77656, December 19, 2008). NNSA issued the first ROD for the continued operation of LANL based on the SWEIS (73 FR 55833) on September 26, 2008.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposes to establish metal halide lamp ballast test procedures that manufacturers would use to demonstrate compliance with the metal halide ballast energy conservation standards mandated by the statute. In accordance with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (EPCA), these test procedures are based on American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard C82.6-2005, ``Ballasts for High-Intensity Discharge Lamps Method of Measurement.'' Also in accordance with EPCA, DOE proposes a test method for measuring standby mode power consumption and discusses the fact that off mode power consumption does not apply to metal halide lamp ballasts.