Department of Energy February 25, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces a meeting of the Methane Hydrate Advisory Committee. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that notice of these meetings be announced in the Federal Register.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces its decision to issue loan guarantees under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) totaling approximately $8.3 billion to one or more of the following applicants for the construction and start-up of the proposed Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (VEGP) Units 3 and 4 advanced nuclear reactors for the production of electrical power in Burke County, Georgia: Georgia Power Company; Oglethorpe Power Corporation; and Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and its subsidiaries. The VEGP Units 3 and 4 would be located in a rural area in eastern Burke County, Georgia, which is the site of two operating nuclear reactor units (VEGP Units 1 and 2). A new 55-mile, 500 kilovolt (kV) transmission line would be constructed to bring power from the switchyard for the new units to the Thomson substation 20 miles west of Augusta, Georgia. The potential environmental impacts of constructing and operating the proposed project, including the transmission line, were analyzed pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for an Early Site Permit (ESP) at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Site (FEIS) and Supplemental EIS (SEIS) for the Combined Licenses (COLs) prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). DOE determined that the project analyzed in the FEIS and SEIS (the NRC EISs) was substantially the same as the project that would be covered by the DOE loan guarantees. DOE was not a cooperating agency with NRC on the EISs and subsequently adopted and re-circulated them as a DOE final EIS (DOE/EIS-0476). The formal announcement of adoption and recirculation was published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on February 17, 2012 (77 FR 9652).