Department of Energy December 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Energy (``DOE'') publishes this final rule to adjust DOE's civil monetary penalties (``CMPs'') for inflation as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as further amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (collectively referred to herein as ``the Act''). This rule adjusts CMPs within the jurisdiction of DOE to the maximum amount required by the Act.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in this final rule, establishes mathematical conversion factors to translate the current energy conservation standards and the measured values determined under the energy factor, thermal efficiency, and standby loss test procedures for consumer water heaters and certain commercial water heaters to those determined under the more recently adopted uniform energy factor test procedure. As required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), as amended, DOE initially presented proposals for establishing a mathematical conversion factor in a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) published on April 14, 2015 (April 2015 NOPR). Upon further analysis and review of the public comments received in response to the April 2015 NOPR, DOE published a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on August 30, 2016 (August 2016 SNOPR). These proposed rulemakings serve as the basis for the final rule.

In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Collection (Commission or FERC) is submitting FERC-725A(1B) (Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Bulk Power System) and FERC-725AZ (Mandatory Reliability Standards: IRO Reliability Standards), in Docket No. RD16-6 to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review of the information collection requirements. Any interested person may file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those comments to the Commission as explained below. The Commission issued a Notice in the Federal Register (81 FR 66952, 9/29/2016) requesting public comments. FERC received no comments in response to FERC-725A(1B) or FERC-725Z and is making this notation in the submittal to OMB.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issues a final rule amending its regulations that prescribe the procedures by which the public may request records pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from DOE offices, excluding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This final rule makes changes to DOE's regulations to reflect statutory amendments made to the FOIA by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, and to make minor grammatical and other editorial changes throughout the regulations. The editorial changes clarify various defined terms, update the internal procedures for processing records requested under FOIA, and reflect minor changes to DOE's internal organizational structure.