Department of Energy June 2011 – 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 proposed collection will allow Department of Energy (DOE) to gather utility bill data in order to manage energy efficiency programs in the Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs (OWIP) effectively. The utility billing data will help DOE determine the impacts and success of these programs in achieving savings, creating jobs, and expanding retrofit markets.

Western Area Power Administration (Western) published proposed Principles for Integrated Resource planning (IRP) for use in its acquisition of resources (supply-side and demand-side) and transmission planning in the Federal Register on December 6, 1994. After considering public comments on the proposed principles, Western adopted the Final Principles of IRP under which project-specific resource acquisition and transmission planning principles would be developed. The Final Principles of IRP were published in the Federal Register on June 9, 1995, and became effective on July 10, 1995. Through this notice, Western is requesting comments on the proposed Western-wide evaluation criteria and procedures that Western will use for future resource acquisitions instead of the current principle, which calls for developing project-by-project criteria. Western is also requesting comments on its proposal to eliminate the transmission planning principles set forth in the Final Principles of IRP.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Savannah River Site. 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.

Freepoint Commodities, LLC has requested authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Mexico pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA).

On May 20, 2011, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reaffirmed their Recommendation 2010-2, concerning Pulse Jet Mixing at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, to the Department of Energy. In accordance with section 315(b) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2286d(d), The following represents the Secretary of Energy's final decision on the recommendation and the reasoning for his decision.

This notice is being issued under the authority of section 131a. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. The Department is providing notice of a proposed subsequent arrangement under the Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Civil Uses of Nuclear Energy Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Canada and the Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Between the United States of America and the European Atomic Energy Community.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), as amended, prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including residential furnaces and residential central air conditioners and heat pumps. EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to determine whether more-stringent, amended standards for these products would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would save a significant amount of energy. In this direct final rule, DOE adopts amended energy conservation standards for residential furnaces and for residential central air conditioners and heat pumps. A notice of proposed rulemaking that proposes identical energy efficiency standards is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. If DOE receives adverse comment and determines that such comment may provide a reasonable basis for withdrawing the direct final rule, this final rule will be withdrawn, and DOE will proceed with the proposed rule.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) (NEPA), and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regulations implementing NEPA (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508 and 10 CFR Part 1021, respectively), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, announces its intention to prepare a site-wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS) (DOE/EIS-0466) for the continued operation of DOE/NNSA activities at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/ NM) on Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) and within the Albuquerque area, as well as other DOE activities at both on-site and off-site locations (the NNSA Service Center, the NNSA Office of Secure Transportation, NNSA Kirtland Operations, the NNSA Aviation Facility, and the DOE National Training Center). The purpose of this notice is to invite individuals, organizations, and government agencies and entities to participate in developing the scope of the SWEIS. The new SWEIS will consider a No Action Alternative, which is to continue current operations through implementation of the 1999 Record of Decision (ROD) (64 FR 69996; 12/15/99) and subsequent NEPA decisions. Three action alternatives proposed for consideration in the SWEIS would be compared to the No Action Alternative. The three action alternatives would differ by either their type or level of operations and may include proposals for new operations or the reduction or elimination of certain operations.