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February 20, 2007

Mark Friedrichs, Esq.

U.S. Department of Energy

Office of Policy and International Affairs

PI-40

Forrestal Building

1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20585

*E-mail: <1605bguidelines.comments@hq.doe.gov>*

**Re: RIN 1901-AB23 and "Interim Final Rule Comments"; Corrections and
Updates to Technical Guidelines for Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reporting,
72 *Fed. Reg****.* **4411 (Jan. 31, 2007)**

Dear Mr. Friedrichs:

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) understands from the
above-referenced notice that the Department of Energy (DOE) is issuing a
revised "interim final rule that corrects, updates, and makes clarifying
changes" to DOE's Technical Guidelines that were previously made
available as "final Technical Guidelines" in March 2006; "incorporated
by reference" in DOE's "final program" Guidelines revision "to be used
for reporting under the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program
authorized by section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992" (71
*Fed. Reg*. 20784, April 21, 2006); and "referred to throughout" Part
300 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) as the "Technical
Guidelines."

The DOE notice explains that after issuance in April 2006 of the final
General Guidelines, DOE discovered errors, etc. with the March 2006
interim final Technical Guidelines and last August by electronic mail
notified prior commenters on the guidelines documents, such as EEI, of
the existence of such errors. However, DOE did not indicate at that time
what errors, etc. it had discovered. Nevertheless, DOE appropriately
afforded an opportunity for such commenters to submit to DOE
"corrections and other changes," not only to the Technical Guidelines,
but also to the General Guidelines.

The DOE notice further explains that after reviewing all such
recommendations for changes, DOE "made those modifications to the
Technical Guidelines that it believed were necessary to correct all the
identified errors and inconsistencies or other ambiguities, while
adhering to the essential language and intent of the March 2006 version
of the Technical Guidelines." However, DOE adds that it "did not adopt"
in this proposed revision "some clarifications or other changes
recommended by stakeholders," saying that some unidentified changes
recommended by stakeholders "would be inconsistent with the General
Guidelines or outside the scope of the guidelines under section 1605(b)"
and that "DOE may consider additional changes to the Technical
Guidelines when it conducts the periodic reviews provided for in 10
C.F.R. 300.1(f)."

According to the notice, "DOE believes that all of the modifications. .
.are fully consistent with the. . .General Guidelines and DOE's original
intent regarding the methods and other guidance provided in the
Technical Guidelines." Nevertheless, DOE is providing a formal
opportunity for

public comment "\[b\]efore these changes are made final" and "is
specifically soliciting public comment on whether any of the changes DOE
has made are inconsistent with the General Guidelines." DOE indicates
that this interim final rule version is to be "effective March 2, 2007
unless comments received" by DOE "warrant or necessitate a later
effective date."

EEI is the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies,
international affiliates and industry associations worldwide. Our U.S.
members serve 92 percent of all customers served by the investor-owned
segment of the industry. They serve more than 67 percent of all ultimate
customers of the electricity in the nation. EEI is also one of six
electric power trade associations in the U.S. that -- acting through
their member companies and along with the Tennessee Valley Authority --
are collectively referred to as the "Power Partners^SM^." On December
13, 2005, Power Partners^SM^ entered into the umbrella Climate VISION
Memorandum of Understanding with DOE in support of the President's
efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of the U.S.
economy by 18 percent by the end of 2012.

EEI's recommendations for changes were submitted on October 2, 2006,
consistent with the electronic mail invitation, and included changes to
both the Technical Guidelines and the General Guidelines. However, the
above-referenced DOE notice is silent on when and how DOE plans to
address recommendations for revision, changes and corrections to the
General Guidelines. We urge a response by DOE.

Regarding the proposed DOE changes to the Technical Guidelines, we
express our appreciation that DOE addressed a number of our
recommendations. EEI also welcomes the opportunity to

comment on this proposed revised version of the final interim Technical
Guidelines of March 2006. However, we are concerned that DOE is only
allowing commenters 20 days to respond, which is an inordinately short
period of time considering the fact that there are numerous DOE-adopted
changes to this document of more than 300 pages. It is our understanding
that DOE's longstanding policy is to afford a minimum of 30 days for
public comments on documents of this nature unless there is some
emergency or statutory reason for a shorter period, which obviously is
not the case with respect to these guidelines. While we seriously
question DOE's deviation from that policy in this case, we nevertheless
submit in expedited fashion the enclosed comments and request
consideration thereof.

At the same time, in commenting to the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) on September 25, 2006, and to the Office of Management and Budget
on December 22, 2006, on EIA's draft section 1605(b) Form and
Instructions implementing the guidelines (with copies of both to DOE),
we also noted some changes relating to the guidelines documents and urge
that DOE consider our comments therein as well. Indeed, we incorporate
herein by reference those submissions as well as our submission of
October 2, 2006, referred to above.

If you have any questions about these comments, please contact me
(202-508-5617, <bfang@eei.org>) or Eric Holdsworth, EEI's Director of
Climate Programs (202-508-5103,

<eholdsworth@eei.org>).

Sincerely,

![](media/image2.png)

William L. Fang

Deputy General Counsel

and Climate Issue Director

WLF:fw

Enclosure

cc (w/ enc):

Karen A. Harbert

Assistant Secretary for Policy and

International Affairs

Department of Energy

Al Cobb

Senior Advisor

Department of Energy

Ray Prince

Office of Policy and International Affairs

Department of Energy

Lindsay Roland

Office of Policy and International Affairs

Department of Energy

Dr. Paul McArdle

Energy Information Administration

Department of Energy

Stephen E. Calopedis

Energy Information Administration

Department of Energy