10552 Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 45 / Thursday, March 8, 2007 / Notices 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 

1969 (40 CFR 1506.6). All comments 

that we receive, including names and 

addresses, will become part of the 

official administrative record and may 

be made available to the public. We will 

evaluate the application, associated 

documents, and comments submitted 

thereon to determine whether the 

application meets the requirements of 

NEPA regulations and section 10(a) of 

the Act. If we determine that those 

requirements are met, we will issue a 

permit to the District for the incidental 

take of desert tortoises. We will make 

our final permit decision no sooner than 

60 days from the date of this notice. 

If you wish to comment on the permit 

application, draft EA, Plan, or IA you 

may submit your comments to the 

address listed in the ADDRESSES section 

of this document. Our practice is to 

make comments, including names, 

home addresses, etc., of respondents 

available for public review. Individual 

respondents may request that we 

withhold their names and/or home 

addresses, etc., but if you wish us to 

consider withholding this information, 

you must state this prominently at the 

beginning of your comments. In 

addition, you must provide a rationale 

demonstrating and documenting that 

disclosure would constitute a clearly 

unwarranted invasion of privacy. In the 

absence of exceptional, documented 

circumstances, we will release this 

information. All submissions from 

organizations or businesses, and from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives or officials of 

organizations or businesses, are 

available for public inspection in their 

entirety. 

Dated: March 2, 2007. 

Polly Wheeler, 

Acting Deputy Manager, California/Nevada 

Operations Office, Sacramento, California. 

[FR Doc. E7–4138 Filed 3–7–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Minerals Management Service 

Notice Terminating the Exclusion of 

Indian Allotted Leases in the Uintah 

and Ouray Reservation From Valuation 

Under 30 CFR 206.172 

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Minerals Management 

Service (MMS) with Bureau of Indian 

Affairs (BIA) concurrence is terminating 

the exclusion from valuation under the 

rules at 30 CFR 206.172 for gas 

produced from the Ute allotted leases in 

the Uintah and Ouray Reservation 

(Reservation), Utah. The final rule was 

published in the Federal Register on 

August 10, 1999 (64 FR 43506). 

DATES: Effective Date: May 1, 2007. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John 

Barder, Manager, San Juan Basin 

Region, Indian Oil and Gas Compliance 

and Asset Management, Minerals 

Revenue Management, Minerals 

Management Service, P.O. Box 25165, 

MS 396B2, Denver, CO 80225–0165, 

telephone number (303) 231–3702, fax 

number (303) 231–3755, e-mail 

john.barder@mms.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The MMS 

published in the Federal Register on 

August 10, 1999 (64 FR 43506), a final 

rule titled ‘‘Amendments to Gas 

Valuation Regulations for Indian 

Leases’’ with an effective date of January 

1, 2000. Indian leases in the Reservation 

were excluded from index-based 

valuation (§ 206.172). This exclusion 

was based on the results of a cost benefit 

analysis MMS performed in 1999. In the 

1999 cost benefit analysis, MMS 

estimated individual Indian mineral 

owners would receive more revenue 

under the non-index-based valuation 

methodology (§ 206.174) than under the 

index-based valuation methodology 

(§ 206.172). 

Effective January 2000, MMS has 

valued gas production from the 

Reservation under the non-index-based 

valuation methodology at § 206.174. 

However, MMS recently performed a 

cost benefit analysis for calendar years 

2004 through 2005 and estimated that 

revenues using the index-based 

valuation formula at § 206.172 exceed 

the estimated revenues using the nonindex-based valuation method at 

§ 206.174. Therefore, as required under 

§ 206.172(g), MMS received written 

concurrence from BIA to terminate the 

exclusion from index-based valuation of 

gas production from Indian allotted 

leases in the Reservation. 

As a result, gas production from Ute 

allotted leases in the Reservation must 

be valued under the index-based 

valuation method (§ 206.172), beginning 

with production on the first day of the 

second month following the date MMS 

publishes notice of its decision in the 

Federal Register. Lessees must value gas 

production from Ute allotted leases in 

the Reservation on the index-based 

valuation formula at § 206.172(d) using 

MMS-approved publications and 

indexes for the Central Rocky Mountain 

Index Zone to determine the index zone 

price; or lessees may obtain the indexbased values from the MRM Internet 

Web site at: http://www.mrm.mms.gov. 

Approved publications and index 

pricing points for the Central Rocky 

Mountain Index Zone are shown in the 

following table: 

APPROVED PUBLICATIONS AND INDEX PRICING POINTS FOR THE CENTRAL ROCKY MOUNTAIN INDEX ZONE

Index zone 

MMS-approved publications 

Index-pricing points Platts gas 

daily price 

guide 

NGI’s 

bidweek 

survey 

Central Rocky Mountains ................... X .................... Kern River Gas Trans. Co. for Wyoming. 

X .................... Northwest Pipeline Corp. for Rocky Mountains. 

X .................... Questar Pipeline Co. for Rocky Mountains. 

X .................... Colorado Interstate Gas Co. for Rocky Mountains. 

.................... X Rocky Mountains 

• CIG. 

• Questar. 

• Kern River. 

• Northwest Domestic. 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 45 / Thursday, March 8, 2007 / Notices 10553 

Dated: January 16, 2007. 

Lucy Querques Denett, 

Associate Director for Minerals, Revenue 

Management. 

[FR Doc. E7–4150 Filed 3–7–07; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–MR–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

National Park Service 

60-Day Notice of Intention To Request 

Clearance of Collection of Information; 

Opportunity for Public Comment 

AGENCY: Department of the Interior, 

National Park Service. 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: Under provisions of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 5 

CFR part 1320, Reporting and 

Recordkeeping Requirements, the 

National Park Service (NPS) invites 

public comments on an extension of a 

currently approved collection of 

information (OMB No. 1024–0236). 

DATES: Public comments on the 

proposed Information Collection 

Request (ICR) will be accepted on or 

before May 7, 2007. 

ADDRESSES: Send Comments To: Dr. 

John G. Dennis, Natural Resources 

(Room 1160), NPS, 1201 Eye Street, 

NW., Washington, DC 20005; Phone: 

202/513–7174; fax: 202/371–2131; email 

WASO_NRSS_researchcoll@nps.gov. 

Also, please send a copy of your 

comments to Leonard Stowe, 

Information Collection Clearance 

Officer, NPS, 1849 C St., NW (2605), 

Washington, DC 20240, or by e-mail at 

Leonard_Stowe@nps.gov. All responses 

to this notice will be summarized and 

included in the request for the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) 

approval. All comments will become a 

matter of public record. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bill 

Commins, NPS, Natural Resources 

(Room 25), 1201 Eye St., NW., 

Washington, DC 20005. Phone 202/513–

7166; Fax: 202/317–2131; E-mail: 

bill_commins@nps.gov. You may obtain 

additional information about the 

application and annual reporting forms 

and existing guidance and explanatory 

material from the NPS Research Permit 

and Reporting System Web site at: 

http://science.nature.nps.gov/research. 

You are entitled to a copy of the entire 

ICR package free of charge. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Research Permit and Reporting 

System Collection of Information 

Package: Application for a Scientific 

Research and Collecting Permit: 

Application for a Science Education 

Permit; Investigator’s Annual Report. 

Bureau Form Number(s): Application 

for a Scientific Research and Collecting 

Permit: 10–741a; Application for a 

Science Education Permit: 10–741b; 

Investigator’s Annual Report: 10–226. 

OMB Number: 1024–0236. 

Expiration Date: 6/30/2007. 

Type of Request: Revision of a 

previously approved information 

collection. 

Description of Need: The currently 

approved information collection 

responds to the statutory requirement 

that NPS preserve park resources and 

regulate the use of units of the National 

park System. The information currently 

collected identifies: (1) Names and 

business contact information for people 

who seek a permit to conduct natural or 

social science research and collection 

activities in individual units of the 

National Park System, (2) what activities 

they wish to conduct, (3) where they 

wish to conduct the activities, (4) 

whether or not they wish to collect 

specimens as part of the activities they 

propose to conduct, and (5) for 

applicants who have received a permit, 

annual summaries of the actual results 

of their permitted activities. NPS uses 

the collected information for managing 

the use and preservation of park 

resources and for reporting the status of 

permitted research and collecting 

activities. NPS is considering proposing 

to develop the Internet software for, and 

implement, the Application for a 

Science Education Permit that OMB 

reviewed and approved in 2004. NPS is 

proposing to leave the current 

Application for a Scientific Research 

and Collecting Permit and the 

Investigator’s Annual Report collection 

of information forms largely unchanged 

unless responses to this request for 

comments identify areas in the two 

collections of information that warrant 

change. 

In response to suggestions for changes 

identified prior to and during the review 

of this information collection package in 

2004, NPS added entries to obtain more 

specific information about project scope 

and status, including expected total 

time span of the project, specific 

identification of project personnel who 

will be working in the park, status of 

processing of collected specimens, 

planned schedules for the field work 

phases of the project, and expected end 

date for the project. NPS also split the 

Application into two versions to 

improve the ability to use the Internet 

to process applications for both 

scientific research and collecting and 

scientific education activities, but has 

not yet modified the Internet software to 

implement the science education 

component. NPS changed the scientific 

research and collecting application to 

improve the clarity of information 

provided to, and obtained from, 

respondents who request use of a nonNPS repository regarding the duty the 

respondents have for securing 

acceptance by the proposed non-NPS 

repository of becoming responsible for 

collections authorized in the permit. 

NPS changed the Investigator’s Annual 

Report to reduce the complexity of the 

form by assigning responsibility to NPS, 

not the respondent, for determining the 

appropriate activity code for each 

permitted project. NPS also designed 

the Investigator’s Annual Report to 

accommodate in a single form progress 

reports from both science research and 

collecting and science education 

permittees. 

At this time, NPS is not proposing to 

make any changes to any of these three 

collections of information. NPS is 

considering updating some of the 

guidance documents and specifically is 

considering creating a separate guidance 

document regarding science education 

activities. NPS specifically requests 

comments on the clarity and utility of 

the guidance documents and on desired 

content of a separate guidance 

document for the science education 

activities. NPS also is considering 

whether to create a new component of 

this collection of information package 

specifically to offer users of the Internet 

site an opportunity to provide 

comments online regarding the usability 

of the Internet site and working 

relationships with parks in which 

permittees conduct science activities. 

Based on growth in use of this 

collection of information system over 

the past six years, NPS is proposing to 

request an increase in the burden hour 

budget. At the onset of the system, NPS 

estimated that there would be 

approximately 3,000 applications and 

3,000 Investigator’s Annual Reports 

submitted each year. The average 

numbers reported for 2004 and 2005 

permitted activities, which are the latest 

two years with complete information for 

numbers of active permits and 

submitted Investigator’s Annual 

Reports, show 4,472 studies per year 

under permit, 5,046 active permits per 

year, and 3,657 Investigator’s Annual 

Reports. Experience with using this 

system shows that, for a variety of 

reasons related to both applicants and 

parks, a number of studies apply for and 

obtain more than one permit per year for 

the same study while other studies 

receive permits that are active for more 

than one year at a time. These situations 


sroberts on PROD1PC70 with NOTICES