77244 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 216 / Thursday, November 9, 2023 / Proposed Rules 

easterly to 24°33′48.8′′ N, 081°47′54.8′′ 

W, and along the shore line back to the 

beginning point. These coordinates are 

based on North American Datum 1983. 

(b) Definitions. As used in this 

section, vessel means every description 

of watercraft or other artificial 

contrivance used, or capable of being 

used, as a means of transportation on 

water, except U.S. Coast Guard or U.S. 

naval vessels. 

(c) Regulations. (1) Under the general 

security zone regulations in subpart D of 

this part, no person or vessel may enter 

or remain in the security zone described 

in paragraph (a) of this section without 

the permission of the Captain of the 

Port, other than Government-owned 

vessels. 

(2) While anchoring, loitering, or 

fishing activities are prohibited, vessels 

may transit the following portions of the 

security zone at safe speed: 

(i) Fleming Key Cut, extending from 

the northwest corner of Pier D–3 of U.S. 

Coast Guard Key West, eastward 

beneath the Fleming Key bridge. 

(ii) Key West Bight Channel, which 

extends easterly from the Main Ship 

Channel into Key West Bight, the 

northerly edge of which channel passes 

25 feet south of the U.S. Coast Guard 

Sector Key West piers on the north side 

of the Bight. 

Jason D. Ingram, 

Captain, U.S. Coast Guard, Captain of the 

Port Sector Key West. 

[FR Doc. 2023–24853 Filed 11–8–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 9110–04–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials 

Safety Administration 

49 CFR Part 192 

[Docket No. PHMSA–2023–0080] 

Pipeline Safety: Mifflin Energy 

Corporation’s Petition for Declaratory 

Order Concerning Part 192 Jurisdiction 

and Operator Responsibility Over 

Customer-Owned Piping 

AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous 

Materials Safety Administration 

(PHMSA), U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Petition for a Declaratory Order. 

SUMMARY: The Pipeline and Hazardous 

Materials Safety Administration is 

seeking comment on a Petition for a 

Declaratory Order (Petition). 

DATES: Comments are due on or before 

December 11, 2023. Reply comments to 

comments received are due on or before 

December 26, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: Comments should reference 

the docket number for the petition 

request and may be submitted by any of 

the following methods: 

• Web: https://www.regulations.gov. 

This site allows the public to enter 

comments on any Federal Register 

document issued by any agency. Follow 

the online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• Fax: 202–493–2251. 

• Mail: Docket Management Facility, 

U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building: 

Room W12–140, Washington, DC 

20590–0001. 

• Hand Delivery: U.S. Department of 

Transportation, 1200 New Jersey 

Avenue SE, West Building: Room W12– 

140, Washington, DC 20590–0001, 

between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST, Monday 

through Friday, except Federal holidays. 

• Instructions: Identify [Docket No. 

PHMSA–2023–0080] at the beginning of 

your comments. If you submit your 

comments by mail, submit two copies. 

Internet users may submit comments at 

https://www.regulations.gov. If you 

would like confirmation that PHMSA 

received your comments, please include 

a self-addressed stamped postcard 

labeled ‘‘Comments on PHMSA–2023– 

0080.’’ The docket clerk will date stamp 

the postcard prior to returning it to you 

via U.S. mail. 

• Note: All comments received will 

be posted without edits to https://

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. Please 

see the Privacy Act heading for more 

information. Anyone can use the site to 

search all comments by the name of the 

submitting individual or, if the 

comment was submitted on behalf of an 

association, business, labor union, etc., 

the name of the signing individual. 

Therefore, please review the complete 

DOT Privacy Act Statement in the 

Federal Register at 65 FR 19477 or the 

Privacy Notice at https://

www.regulations.gov before submitting 

comments. 

• Privacy Act Statement: DOT may 

solicit comments from the public 

regarding certain general notices. DOT 

posts these comments without edit, 

including any personal information the 

commenter provides, to 

www.regulations.gov, as described in 

the system of records notice (DOT/ALL14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at 

www.dot.gov/privacy. 

• Confidential Business Information: 

Confidential Business Information (CBI) 

is commercial or financial information 

that is both customarily and actually 

treated as private by its owner. Under 

the Freedom of Information Act (5 

U.S.C. 552), CBI is exempt from public 

disclosure. If your comments in 

response to this document contain 

commercial or financial information 

that is customarily treated as private, 

that you actually treat as private, and 

that is relevant or responsive to this 

document it is important that you 

clearly designate the submitted 

comments as CBI. Pursuant to 49 CFR 

190.343, you may ask PHMSA to 

provide confidential treatment to 

information you give to the Agency by 

taking the following steps: (1) mark each 

page of the original document 

submission containing CBI as 

‘‘Confidential;’’ (2) send PHMSA a copy 

of the original document with the CBI 

deleted along with the original, 

unaltered document; and (3) explain 

why the information you are submitting 

is CBI. Submissions containing CBI 

should be sent to Tewabe Asebe, U.S. 

Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 

20590–0001. Submission containing CBI 

can also be emailed to Tewabe Asebe by 

encrypted email at tewabe.asebe@

dot.gov. Any commentary PHMSA 

receives that is not specifically 

designated as CBI will be placed in the 

public docket. 

• Docket: For access to the docket or 

to read background documents or 

comments, go to https://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for accessing the dockets. 

Alternatively, this information is 

available by visiting DOT at 1200 New 

Jersey Avenue SE, West Building: Room 

W12–140, Washington, DC 20590–0001, 

between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST, 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tewabe Asebe, Office of Pipeline Safety, 

by phone at 202–366–5523 or by email 

at tewabe.asebe@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: PHMSA is 

evaluating a Petition for a Declaratory 

Order (Petition) from Mifflin Energy 

Corporation (Mifflin), pursuant to 49 

U.S.C. 60117(b)(1)(J). 

Mifflin operated a production line in 

Greene County, Pennsylvania, which 

was subject to a free gas arrangement. 

Under the arrangement, gas flowed from 

Mifflin’s production line through a 

pipeline owned by the landowner, with 

the regulator and meter placed at the 

juncture of the production line and the 

customer-owned pipeline. In March 

2020, with Mifflin’s consent, the 

landowner moved the regulator and the 

meter downstream of the juncture, 

further down the landowner’s pipeline. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 216 / Thursday, November 9, 2023 / Proposed Rules 77245 

1PHMSA, Interp. No. PI–21–0003, In re 

Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, (Sept. 1, 

2021) (the ‘‘2021 Interpretation’’). 

On April 9, 2020, a failure occurred on 

the landowner’s piping, causing damage 

to a nearby residential structure. 

On January 29, 2021, the 

Pennsylvania Public Utility 

Commission’s (PAPUC) Bureau of 

Investigation and Enforcement (BI&E) 

requested an interpretation of 49 CFR 

part 192 as it concerned the facts of this 

incident. On September 21, 2021, OPS 

issued an interpretation in response to 

BI&E’s inquiry.1 The 2021 Interpretation 

stated that the piping between Mifflin’s 

production line and the landowner’s 

meter was a service line under § 192.3; 

the lease agreement did not have an 

impact on whether the pipe was a 

service line; and Mifflin was an 

‘‘operator’’ within the meaning of 

§ 192.3. 

On March 20, 2023, Mifflin filed a 

Petition with PHMSA requesting 

PHMSA issue an order declaring that, 

under a free gas arrangement, customerowned piping upstream of a meter is not 

subject to 49 CFR part 192, and that a 

production line operator is not 

responsible for ensuring compliance 

with part 192 on customer piping. The 

Petition also requested that PHMSA 

rescind its 2021 Interpretation issued to 

BI&E. The Petition is available for 

review in the docket for this proceeding. 

Before issuing a final decision on the 

Petition, PHMSA will evaluate all 

comments received on or before the 

comment closing date. Comments 

received after the closing date will be 

evaluated if it is possible to do so 

without incurring additional expense or 

delay. PHMSA will consider each 

relevant comment received in issuing its 

final decision and order, which will be 

published in the Federal Register and 

posted to PHMSA’s website. 

PHMSA notes this is the first time a 

person has petitioned for issuance of a 

declaratory order under authority 

granted to PHMSA by the PIPES Act of 

2020. See Protecting Our Infrastructure 

of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act 

of 2020, Consolidated Appropriations 

Act, 2021, Division R, Public Law 116– 

260, section 108(a), 134 Stat. 1181, 

2221, 2223; 49 U.S.C. 60117(b)(1)(J). 

PHMSA is committed to including an 

opportunity for public comment in 

circumstances in which it exercises its 

authority to issue a declaratory order. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on November 3, 

2023, under authority delegated in 49 CFR 

1.97. 

Alan K. Mayberry, 

Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety. 

[FR Doc. 2023–24718 Filed 11–8–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–60–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

50 CFR Part 216 

[RTID 0648–XD169] 

Marine Mammals; Subsistence Taking 

of Northern Fur Seals; Pribilof and 

Aleutian Islands 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notification of receipt of 

petition for rulemaking; request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: NMFS announces the receipt 

of a petition for rulemaking under the 

Administrative Procedure Act (APA). 

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island 

(ACSPI), the Traditional Council of St. 

George Island (TCSGI), and the Aleut 

Marine Mammal Commission (AMMC) 

have petitioned NMFS to revise 

regulations governing the subsistence 

taking of northern fur seals. The 

revisions requested include: changing 

the current hunting season on St. Paul 

Island, Alaska to begin on October 15, 

creating an annual hunting season on St. 

George Island, Alaska to begin on 

October 15 and end on May 31, and 

creating an annual hunting season in the 

Aleutian Islands in Alaska to begin on 

November 1 and end on April 30, with 

an upper take limit for the Aleutian 

Islands of 100 non-breeding male fur 

seals. NMFS solicits public comments 

on this request. NMFS will consider all 

comments and available information 

when determining whether to proceed 

with rulemaking. 

DATES: Comments must be received by 

December 11, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

on this document, identified by NOAA– 

NMFS–2023–091, by any of the 

following methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and enter 

[NOAA–NMFS–2023–091] in the Search 

box. Click the ‘‘Comment’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: Submit written comments to 

Anne Marie Eich, NMFS Alaska 

Regional Office, 709 W. 9th St., P.O. Box 

21668, Juneau, AK 99802. 

Instructions: Comments sent by any 

other method, to any other address or 

individual, or received after the end of 

the comment period may not be 

considered by NMFS. All comments 

received are a part of the public record 

and will generally be posted for public 

viewing on https://www.regulations.gov 

without change. All personal identifying 

information (e.g., name, address), 

confidential business information, or 

otherwise sensitive information 

submitted voluntarily by the sender will 

be publicly accessible. NMFS will 

accept anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/ 

A’’ in the required fields if you wish to 

remain anonymous). 

Electronic copies of the petitions and 

letters are available at: https://

www.regulations.gov/docket/NOAANMFS-2023-091 or the NMFS Alaska 

Region website: https://

www.fisheries.noaa.gov/alaska/marinemammal-protection/northern-fur-sealsubsistence-harvest-estimates-andreports#subsistence-harvest-estimates. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Michael Williams, NMFS Alaska 

Region, 907–271–5117, 

michael.williams@noaa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The subsistence use of northern fur 

seals on the Pribilof Islands is governed 

by regulations established under the Fur 

Seal Act in 50 CFR 216.71–74. These 

regulations were most recently revised 

on October 30, 2014 (79 FR 65327, 

November 4, 2014), and September 27, 

2019 (84 FR 52372, October 2, 2019), to 

increase food security, consistent with 

traditional and cultural practices, and 

deregulate aspects of the subsistence use 

of northern fur seals on the Pribilof 

Islands. ACSPI, TCSGI, and AMMC 

report that Alaska Native subsistence 

users have experienced the direct effects 

of climate change through 

unprecedented storm frequency, timing, 

and duration. This has resulted in the 

reduction of the availability of and 

opportunity to obtain subsistence 

resources. As a result, the ACSPI, 

TCSGI, and the AMMC submitted 

requests to NMFS to change the 

regulations to expand fur seal hunting 

and harvesting opportunities to meet 

their customary and traditional needs 

and practices, as well as their 

subsistence needs. NMFS considers 

these requests to be a formal petition for 

rulemaking under the APA. The 

requests are as follows: 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with PROPOSALS1