Department of Energy January 4, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is initiating a rulemaking and data collection process to consider amendments to DOE's test procedure for residential furnaces and boilers. Because DOE has recently completed a test procedure rulemaking for the standby mode and off mode energy consumption of these products, the primary focus of this rulemaking will be on active mode operation. This rulemaking is intended to fulfill DOE's statutory obligation to review its test procedures for covered products at least once every seven years. To inform interested parties and to facilitate the process, DOE has gathered data and has identified several issues that might warrant modifications to the currently applicable test procedures, including topics on which DOE is particularly interested in receiving comment. In overview, the issues outlined in this document mainly concern reducing the test burden, test conditions impacting the annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) metric, test conditions impacting non-AFUE efficiency parameters, the performance test for automatic means in boilers, harmonization of standards, alternative methods for furnace/boiler efficiency determination, and scope. These topics (and others which commenters identify) are ones which DOE anticipates may lead to proposed test procedure amendments in a subsequent notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR). DOE welcomes written comments from the public on any subject related to the test procedures for residential furnaces and boilers, including topics not specifically raised in this RFI.

The Natural Gas Act (NGA) requires that prior to the construction or extension of any natural gas facilities, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) must issue a certificate that authorizes a natural gas company to undertake the proposed activity. However, under the Commission's regulations, the construction of auxiliary installations or replacement facilities, while subject to the Commission's NGA jurisdiction, are not treated as the construction or extension of facilities, and thus do not require certificate authorization. The Commission proposes to revise its regulations to clarify that all activities related to the construction of auxiliary installations and replacement facilities must take place within a company's certificated right-of-way using previously approved work spaces. In addition, the Commission proposes to add landowner notification requirements for auxiliary installations, replacement facilities, and other jurisdictional activities performed within the right-of-way.