Department of Energy January 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces receipt of the approval of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to extend until November 30, 2017, DOE's information collection under control number 1910-1400 pursuant to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has reorganized its Office of Health, Safety and Security by dividing the office into two separate organizations: The Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security and the Office of Enterprise Assessments. The Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security's mission is to provide corporate leadership and strategic approaches for protecting DOE's workers, the public, the environment and national security assets. This objective is accomplished through developing corporate policies and standards and providing guidance on their implementation; sharing operating experience, lessons learned, and best practices; and providing assistance and supporting services to line management with the goal of mission success as DOE's environment, health, safety and security advocate. The Office of Enterprise Assessments administers the Department's Congressionally-mandated enforcement functions in the areas of worker safety and health, nuclear safety, and security, and provides independent assessments of Departmental performance in the areas of security, worker safety and health, nuclear safety and the environment. This final rule makes technical amendments to DOE's regulations to substitute the officials to whom or offices to which functions have been transferred pursuant to the reorganization of offices and functions. This regulation does not alter substantive rights or obligations under current law.

This notice announces an open meeting of the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (Commission). The Commission was created pursuant section 319 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, Public Law 113-76, and in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), as amended, 5 U.S.C. App. 2. This notice is provided in accordance with the Act.

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 automatic commercial icemakers (ACIM). EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to determine whether more-stringent standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would save a significant amount of energy. In this final rule, DOE is adopting more-stringent energy conservation standards for some classes of automatic commercial ice makers as well as establishing energy conservation standards for other classes of automatic commercial ice makers. It has determined that the amended energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy, and are technologically feasible and economically justified.

The Commission proposes, as a statement of policy, the following clarifications regarding hold harmless commitments offered by applicants as ratepayer protection mechanisms to mitigate adverse effects on rates that may result from transactions subject to section 203 of the Federal Power Act (FPA). First, the Commission proposes to clarify the scope and definition of the costs that should be subject to hold harmless commitments. Second, the Commission proposes to clarify that applicants offering hold harmless commitments must implement controls and procedures to track the costs from which customers will be held harmless. The Commission also proposes to clarify the types of controls and procedures that applicants offering hold harmless commitments must implement. Third, the Commission proposes to no longer accept hold harmless commitments that are limited in duration. Fourth, the Commission proposes to clarify that applicants may demonstrate that, under certain circumstances, transactions will not have an adverse effect on rates without relying on hold harmless commitments or other ratepayer protection mechanisms.

Chubu TT Energy Management Inc. (Chubu TT) has applied for authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act.

This notice provides information on a public workshop, scheduled for February 20, 2015, that will discuss the U.S. Department of Energy's December 17, 2014 notice of proposed rulemaking to establish a retrospective risk pooling program under section 934 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. There will be an opportunity for public comment before and after the public workshop.

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, titled the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Commercialization Survey will satisfy the program requirements of the Small Business Act, including requirements established in the SBIR program reauthorization legislation, Public Law 106-554 and Public Law 107-50. DOE will collect the survey data via Web-enabled software and provide it to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to maintain information about the DOE SBIR/STTR awards issued through the two programs. This data will be provided by DOE based on information collected from SBIR/STTR awardees. This data will be used by DOE, SBA, and Congress to assess the commercial impact of these two programs.

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 general service fluorescent lamps (GSFLs) and incandescent reflector lamps (IRLs). EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to determine whether more-stringent standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would save a significant amount of energy. In this final rule, DOE is adopting more-stringent energy conservation standards for GSFLs. It has determined that the amended energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy, and are technologically feasible and economically justified. DOE concluded in this final rule that amending energy conservation standards for IRLs would not be economically justified.

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.