Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 13, September 23, 2024
Subpart 1.
Purpose.
The purpose of this measure is to conserve motor fuel by
requiring certain employers to reduce employee commuting and business-related
motor fuel consumption in an energy supply emergency. The department shall
inform affected employers before May 25, 1983, of the requirements for
participating in the employer-based conservation measure. The governor may not
implement this measure before May 25, 1983.
Subp. 2.
Scope.
The following employers are required to comply with the
provisions of this measure:
A.
employers who have employment sites where 100 or more persons are employed
during the course of any 24-hour period during a normal work week;
B. all educational institutions at the
postsecondary school level with a total combined student faculty commuting
population of 200 or more persons, including colleges, universities, and
technical colleges; and
C. state,
county, and municipal governments who have employment sites where 50 or more
persons are employed.
Employers having fewer employees at a location shall be
encouraged to adopt strategies listed under this subpart or implement any other
conservation activity which reduces employee-commuting and business-related
motor fuel consumption.
Subp.
3.
Technical assistance.
Technical assistance in the preparation of emergency motor
fuel conservation plans will be provided by the department upon request.
Subp. 4.
Employer
plans.
Employer plans may be submitted to the department for each
applicable site or in conjunction with a business consortium, community, local,
municipal, or county-wide plan, so long as each employer subject to this part
identifies the conservation strategies adopted for each work site and the
program elements listed under subpart
9.
Employers may choose to submit energy conservation plans to
the department before the declaration of an energy emergency in the form and
manner provided in subpart
5 or
6.
Subp. 5.
Employer emergency motor fuel
conservation plan.
Employers may submit an emergency motor fuel conservation
plan that demonstrates how employee-commuting and business travel motor fuel
consumption would be reduced during an energy supply emergency. The employer
may choose conservation strategies which achieve the required reduction.
Employer plans must contain conservation strategies which
taken together would reduce an employer's baseline consumption by 15
percent.
Employers submitting self-styled emergency motor fuel
conservation plans shall include a calculation of their baseline consumption as
defined in part
7620.0100, the expected motor fuel
savings attributed to the selected strategies, and the plan elements described
in subpart
9.
Employers will be credited for travel reduction actions taken
prior to submission of their plans that yield ongoing fuel savings.
The assistant commissioner may decline to certify an employer
plan submitted under this paragraph which fails to support the level of savings
attributed to each of the proposed activities. Self-styled employer plans may
contain any of the strategies provided in subpart
6.
Subp. 6.
Employer motor fuel reduction
strategies.
Employers shall select at least four strategies from the
categories I and II, but in no case less than one from category I.
Subp. 7.
Category I.
Category I strategies:
A. Establish a carpool program for employees.
An employer rideshare program may be independently sponsored or provided in
conjunction with a local or community ridesharing program. A rideshare program
must minimally provide for: promotion of ridesharing through company bulletins,
advertisements, and policies; the capability to match employees to carpools
through ride boards, computer listings, or other methods which provide
information necessary to match rideshare applicants; and a rideshare
coordinator who will be responsible for the sponsored program.
B. Sponsor an employee vanpool program. An
employer may purchase, rent, lease, or otherwise provide employees with vans
for commuting to and from work. The employer may demonstrate an equivalent
level of employee participation in an independent or employee-owned vanpool,
but in any case shall maintain a participation rate of at least seven percent
of total employment to qualify as providing a vanpool program.
C. Provide an auxiliary transportation
service (e.g., subscription bus or shuttle service) or participate in a
consortium of two or more employers to provide the service. A qualifying
auxiliary transportation service shall consist of vehicles with a minimum
carrying capacity of 20 passengers, a participation rate of 50 percent of
employees who live within a three-mile radius of the work site, or the
equivalent number, and at least one commuter check point at least five miles
from the work site.
Employer-sponsored rideshare programs which fulfill the
requirements of subpart
7 will be certified by the
department. Employers may issue "identifying" rideshare stickers to qualifying
employees' vehicles. Rideshare vehicles will be eligible to purchase fuel as
priority vehicles under the flag system described in part
7620.0650 and will be exempt from
the odd-even purchase restriction described in part
7620.0630.
Subp. 8.
Category II.
Category II strategies:
A. Adopt and enforce a parking management
strategy which provides for preferential parking for high-occupancy vehicles in
employer parking lots or subsidizes at least 20 percent of the cost of contract
parking in independently operated parking facilities for employee carpools, or
both.
B. Prohibit the use of
company-owned vehicles for single occupancy commuting and adopt a policy of
using company vehicles for employee carpools.
C. Purchase an electric or electric hybrid
vehicle.
D. Promote transit use by
employees through direct sale of transit passes at the work site, fare
subsidies, or display of direct and connecting routes serving the work
site.
E. Provide facilities which
promote employee commuting by bicycle or moped. These facilities might include
indoor or sheltered bicycle parking, high security bicycle parking, showers and
dressing areas for bikers.
F.
Participate with a rideshare agency to provide jitney service to persons
requesting travel to a destination on or near the route taken for business
purposes. An employer-owner or employee-owned vehicle used for business
purposes may be used for the jitney service.
G. Institute flexible or staggered work
hours.
H. Participate in an
independently sponsored truck and bus fuel economy project which offers both
energy-conscious driver education and instruction on fuel-economizing vehicle
maintenance and accessories. Employers choosing this strategy must maintain a
fleet of at least ten vehicles used for cargo and freight hauling.
Subp. 9.
Content of
conservation plan.
An employer submitting an emergency motor fuel conservation
plan according to subpart
5 or
6 shall identify in its plan
the following:
A. the carpool,
vanpool, or subscription bus program sponsored or subscribed to, and an
estimate of the number of employees currently using and expected to use such
services;
B. title of the person or
persons responsible for supervising each plan component;
C. the internal media to be used to inform
employees of the employer's program;
D. the administrative assistance and in-house
resources that the employer will provide for employee ridesharing
services;
E. the schedule for
implementing chosen strategies; and
F. the personnel (by title or position) that
will perform essential plant protection for the firm during a driving
ban.
Subp. 10.
Employers actions upon governor's order.
Employers shall institute all strategies contained in an
approved employer conservation plan when the governor orders the employer-based
motor fuel conservation measure.
Subp.
11.
Employers without conservation plan.
Employers who do not have an approved emergency motor fuel
conservation plan before the declaration of an energy supply emergency for
motor fuel shall:
A. submit to the
department within 15 days after declaration of an energy supply emergency for
motor fuel a plan to reduce baseline consumption by at least 15 percent over a
period of three months or longer; or
B. institute a compressed work week pursuant
to an executive order of the governor that designates the weekday on which
employers not qualifying under subpart
5,
6, or
11, item A, shall not
perform or have an employee perform any activity related to the business except
where:
(1) business- or employment-related
activity can be performed at an employer's or employee's place of
residence;
(2) activities required
in certain industrial processes must operate continuously to prevent long-term
or irreparable damage to a system or process; and
(3) plant protection requires a minimum level
of attention or surveillance.
C. the following businesses or governmental
activities shall be exempt from a compressed work week regardless of subpart
11:
(1) public or private services essential to
public health and safety such as health and residential care facilities,
medical facilities, law enforcement activities, and emergency
services;
(2)
agriculture;
(3) energy
production;
(4) telecommunications;
and
(5) sanitation
services.
Subp.
12.
Public announcement.
The emergency operating center shall publicly announce the
implementation of the employer-based conservation measure at least ten days
prior to the effective date of the measure.
Statutory Authority: MS s
216C.15
