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INFORMATION COLLECTION REQUEST (ICR)

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

OFFICE OF AIR & RADIATION

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Identification of the Information Collection

a. Title: Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: 2011 Renewable Fuel Standards -

Petition for International Aggregate Compliance Approach – (RENEWAL)

EPA Number: 2398.03

OMB Control Number 2060-0655

b. Short characterization:

This regulation has a provision that EPA will use to authorize renewable fuel 

producers using certain foreign-grown feedstocks to use an aggregate approach to comply 

with the renewable biomass verification provisions, akin to that applicable to producers 

using crops and crop residue grown in the United States. For this authorization, foreign 

based entities may petition EPA for approval of the aggregate compliance approach for 

specified renewable fuel feedstocks either in a foreign country as a whole or in a 

specified geographical area. This petition request for the aggregate compliance approach

for foreign-grown crops and crop residue is voluntary, though, if approved by EPA, will 

offer the benefit that certain renewable biomass produced in a foreign country or 

geographical area can be counted as feedstock to make renewable fuel for credit under

the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) program. 

2. Need For, and Use of, the Collection

a. Authority for the Collection

Sections 114 and 208 of the CAA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7414 and 7542, authorize EPA to 

require recordkeeping and reporting regarding enforcement of the provisions of Title II of 

the CAA. The relevant regulations are in 40 CFR Part 80, Renewable Fuel Standard. 

b. Practical Utility/Uses of the Data

The data collected under this ICR will be used for EPA to evaluate/grant petitions.
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3. Non-duplication, Consultation, and other Collection Criteria

a. Non-duplication

Efforts have been made to eliminate duplication in this information collection. 

Where possible, information requirements from various organizations within the Agency 

have been combined to minimize the submittal of duplicate information in different 

formats. The information in this collection will not be available from another source.

b. Public Notice

EPA sought comment on reporting requirements via Notice found in 78FR 30428 on 

December 20, 2013. There were five comments at the end of the sixty (60) day comment 

period. These comments were out of the scope of the ICR and did not require addressing. 

Commenters did not address the petition process that would authorize renewable fuel 

producers using certain foreign-grown feedstocks to use an aggregate approach to comply 

with the renewable biomass verification provisions, equal to that applicable to producers 

using crops and crop residue grown in the United States. Three comments expressed 

strong opposition to the use of ethanol (E15 and E85) and alcohol products used in 

gasoline believed to cause damage to fuel systems in cars and most motorized machines. 

A Southern Minnesota and an Arkansas farmer expressed continued future support for the 

renewable fuel mandate.

c. Consultations

EPA has made an asserted effort to seek industry comment for this ICR. EPA 

contacted Ms. Kristy Moore of the Renewable Fuels Association who can be contacted 

on (202) 315-2468 and kmoore@ethanolrfa.org. Ms. Moore reviewed the ICR in 

consultation with her colleagues who believe the current processes for foreign producers 

are working and the time and cost associated with the estimates looked reasonable. EPA 

also contacted Chris Bliley of Growth Energy by e-mail cbliley@growthenergy.org and 

by phone. Mr. Bliley’s organizations work primarily with domestic producers and could 

not speculate if cost were reasonable or fair for producers using certain foreign-grown 

feedstocks. EPA also contacted Laticia Phillips of UNICA – Sugarcane Industry 

Association e-mail leticia@unica.com.br. Ms. Phillips commented that foreign producers 

applying for aggregate compliance for its feedstock and that process (collecting all data, 

maps, signatures, ministry letters, etc.) will take the foreign producer at least 40 hours of 

work at the average rate quoted in EPA’s assumptions. Translation alone for a foreign 

entity will take more than 40 hours. In response to the comments given by UNICA, the 

hourly industry assumption in this ICR will be changed to 40 in this collection to reflect a 

better scenario for foreign producers.
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d. Effects of Less Frequent Data Collection

This data collection is necessary in order to permit a petitioning process to 

function for foreign renewable fuel producers to comply with the renewable biomass 

verification provision. We anticipate only one response per respondent. The information 

collected will be received from foreign based entities seeking an authorization to use 

specified renewable fuel feedstocks. The information in this collection is not available 

from another source. 

e. General Guidelines

This rule does exceed the OMB guidelines. EPA requests an exception to the 

OMB guidelines that agencies may only require records to be maintained for no more 

than three years. Records can be kept either electronically or on paper. EPA needs to 

make sure regulated parties keep records long enough to be evaluated for compliance 

during this time period. Section 40 CFR Part 80.1454(l) requires record retention for five 

years from the date the records were created. Any information claimed as confidential 

will be treated in accordance with 40 CFR Part 2 and established Agency procedures. 

Information that is received without a claim of confidentiality may be made available to 

the public without further

f. Confidentiality

Respondents may assert claims of business confidentiality (CBI) for any or all of 

the information they submit. We do not believe that most respondents would characterize 

the information they submit to us under this information collection as CBI. However, 

any information claimed as confidential will be treated in accordance with 40 CFR Part 2

and established Agency procedures. Information that is received without a claim of 

confidentiality may be made available to the public without further notice to the 

submitter under 40 CFR § 2.203.

g. Sensitive Information

This information collection does not require submission of any sensitive 

information.

4. The Respondents and the Information Requested

a. Respondents/SIC Codes

Entities potentially affected by this proposed rule are those involved with the 

production, distribution, and sale of transportation fuels, including gasoline and diesel 

fuel or renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. In the case of these petitions, we 

anticipate that they may come from foreign trade associations or governmental entities. 

Potentially regulated categories include:
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Category NAICS1

Codes

SIC2

Codes

Examples of Potentially Regulated Entities

Industry

Industry 

Industry 

Industry 

Industry 

Industry

Industry

324110

325193

325199

424690

424710

424720

454319

2911

2869

2869

5169

5171

5172

5989

Petroleum Refineries

Ethyl alcohol manufacturing

Other basic organic chemical manufacturing

Chemical and allied products merchant wholesalers

Petroleum bulk stations and terminals

Petroleum and petroleum products merchant 

wholesalers

Other fuel dealers

1 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)

2 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system code.

b. Information Requested

A) Reporting: No form is to be developed for this petition process. 

Specific items of information to be requested are outlined in the regulation. 

B) Recordkeeping: For the RFS2 program, respondents retain records 

for a period of not less than five (5) years. 

5. The Information Collected, Agency Activities, Collection Methodology, and 

Information Management

a. Agency Activities

 All petitions will be reviewed by EPA. 

 Petitions will be stored by EPA.

 A response (grant, denial, etc.) will be issued by EPA. 

b. Collection Methodology and Management

The information collected will be in the form of a petition. No standard form is to 

be developed. As mentioned above, we do not anticipate that this information will come 

in under a CBI claim; however, that is a possibility and we will treat all such information 

in accordance with 40 CFR Part 2 and established Agency procedures for handling CBI. 

Information claimed as CBI will be stored in appropriately controlled areas.

c. Small Entity Flexibility

This collection will not adversely affect small entities. 

d. Collection Schedule

We anticipate each petitioner will submit one petition.
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6. Estimating the Burden and Cost of Collection

a. Estimating the Respondent Universe 

We estimate 15 petitions will be received from 15 countries or geographical areas

during the three years covered by this proposed ICR. 

b. Estimating the Respondent Burden and Cost

Three labor categories are involved: managerial (includes legal and professional 

review), technical, and clerical. The estimates used the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures 

from "National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment & Wage Estimate 

“Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing” (May 2011), with a 3% annual inflation 

factor applied to bring the values to the present. Using this method, the following wages 

and benefits apply by category:

Wages and Benefits

Managerial $67.44 per hour

Technical $65.56 per hour

Clerical $22.17 per hour

Doubling for company overhead beyond wages and benefits, and for convenience, 

rounding up to the dollar, gives the following rates for this ICR:

Total Employer Cost

Managerial $135.00 per hour

Technical $131.00 per hour

Clerical $ 44.00 per hour

It is assumed that for each hour of activity the mix will be about 0.1 hour managerial, 0.7 

hour technical, and 0.2 hour clerical. This gives an average labor cost of $114 per hour, 

which will be used in this ICR. For purchased services related to attest engagements and 

some items of registration, we have doubled this hourly cost to $228 in order to more 

accurately reflect the cost of a certified public accountant (CPA) or licensed professional 

engineer's (PE) services.
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We estimate that each petition will take 40 hours to prepare per year. We have 

drawn upon our experiences with the Renewable Fuel Standard Provision and estimate no 

more than 15 notifications with an annual burden of 600 burden hours per year and for 

three years 1,800 burden hours. The total annual burden by party is estimated as follows:

Information Collection Burden by Type of Party

Information 

Collection

Number 

of Parties

(countries)

Number 

of 

Responses

Per Party

Total 

Number 

of 

Responses

Time Per 

Response

Cost Per 

Response

Total 

Hours

Total 

Cost

Petition for 

International 

aggregate 

compliance

15 1 15 40 $4,560 600 $68,400

Total 15 15 600 $68,400

Estimating Agency Burden and Cost

No response is required to notifications unless a potential violation is noted. We 

have drawn upon our experiences with the Renewable Fuel Standard Provision and 

estimate no more than 15 notifications with an annual burden of 300 burden hours per 

year and for three years 900 burden hours. The Agency burden consist of two GS-13 

technical worker $82.00 an hour including overhead, and a GS-15 manager $ 114.00 an 

hour including overhead for an Agency burden of $ 1,764 per response with an annual 

total cost of $26,460. We have assumed that each response will require 16 hours of 

technical staff time (two staff FTE, working eight hours each) to review and prepare the 

written response. It is estimated that one manager will be required to expend a total of 4 

hours per response. Contractors will not be used to handle these applications and are not 

included.

These estimates are derived from "OPM Salary Table 2010-DCB," effective January 

2010. This table may be found at http://archive.opm.gov/oca/10tables/html/RUS-h.asp. 

The extreme of step 10 was assumed for all categories. All values were multiplied by 1.6 

(which is a common factor utilized in ICRs to account for overhead costs). We rounded 

the resulting dollar value to the nearest tenth. The total yearly Agency burden is

estimated as follows:
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Collection Activity

Number of 

Parties

Number of 

Responses 

per Party

Total Number 

of 

Responses

Time per 

Response

Cost per 

Response

Total 

Hours

Total 

Cost

Third Party Disclosure

Evaluate Data - Technical - $82 per hour 15 1 15 8 656 120 9840

Prepare and send Response - Technical - $82 per 

hour 15 1 15 8 656 120 9840

Evaluate Data - Manager $113 per hour 15 1 15 4 452 60 6780

TOTAL 30 30 300 26460

Agency Burden Hours & Cost

d. Estimating the Respondent Universe

We based our estimate upon the number of petitions we expect to receive and

invite further comment from interested parties.

e. Bottom Line Burden Hours and Costs

From the Table on page 6 we estimate the following:

TOTAL NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS: 15

TOTAL NO. OF RESPONSES: 15

TOTAL BURDEN HOURS (ANNUAL): 600

TOTAL COST (ANNUAL): $68,400

f. Reason for Change in Burden

There is an increase of hours in the total estimated respondent burden compared with the 

ICR currently approved by OMB. The total hours increased by 400 due to a more 

accurate account of hours needed for foreign producers to complete the petition for 

approval that will offer the benefit that certain renewable biomass produced in a foreign 

country or geographical area can be counted as feedstock to make renewable fuel for 

credit under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2). This change in burden hours increased

the cost of this collection by $54,204 per year. The respondent universe and responses

remained the same in this collection. 
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g. Burden Statement

The average respondent burden in hours per respondent, per year, for this ICR is 

estimated at 40 hours. 

Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to 

generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. 

This includes the time needed to review the instructions; develop, acquire, install, and 

utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating, and verifying 

information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing 

information; adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable 

instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of 

information; search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and 

transit or otherwise disclose the information. 

An Agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to 

a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The 

OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are listed in 40 CFR Part 9 and 48 CFR 

Chapter 15.

To comment on the Agency's need for this information, the accuracy of the 

provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing respondent 

burden, including the use of automated collection techniques, EPA has established a 

public docket for this ICR under Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0133, which is 

available for online viewing at www.regulations.gov, or in person viewing at the Air and 

Radiation in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 

Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. The EPA Docket Center Public Reading 

Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal 

holidays. The telephone number for the Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the 

telephone number for the Air and Radiation is (202) 566-1742. An electronic version of 

the public docket is available at www.regulations.gov. This site can be used to submit or 

view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket, and 

to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically. When in 

the system, select “search,” then key in the Docket ID Number identified above. Also, 

you can send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 

Management and Budget, 725 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20503, Attention: 

Desk Officer for EPA. Please include the EPA Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OAR2010-0133 and OMB Control Number 2060-0655 in any correspondence.