Department of Energy 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (DOE) pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, intends to extend for three years, an information collection request with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the extended information collection is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is revising its regulations to modify when the Commission will commence assessing annual charges to hydropower licensees and exemptees, other than state or municipal entities, with respect to licenses and exemptions authorizing unconstructed projects and new capacity. Specifically, the Commission will commence assessing annual charges on the date by which the licensee or exemptee is required to commence construction of an unconstructed project or new capacity, rather than on the date that project construction actually begins. The final rule provides administrative efficiency and promotes certainty among licensees, exemptees, and Commission staff as to when annual charges will commence.

BPA is seeking comments on a proposed submission to OMB for clearance of a collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. BPA collects information necessary to verify the personal identity of potential employees and contractors. The information assists BPA in the performance of identity verification and registration prior to issuance of a DOE Security Badge and ensures compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12), a mandatory, Government-wide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification issued by the Federal Government to its employees and contractors.

On August 5, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a final rule amending the test procedures for clothes washers. This correction addresses several cross-reference numbering errors, in which the cross-references were inadvertently not updated to reflect the revised section numbering resulting from the final rule amendments. In addition, this correction republishes several amendments from the final rule that could not be incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) due to inaccurate amendatory instructions, and clarifies several of the amendatory instructions in the final rule to remove certain sections of the test procedures. Furthermore, this correction reinstates three sections of the clothes washer test procedure that were inadvertently removed from the CFR starting with the 2013 annual edition. Neither the errors nor the corrections in this document affect the substance of the rulemaking or any of the conclusions reached in support of either of these final rules.