### 48864 Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 155 / Monday, August 12, 2013 / Notices

performance of duties imposed upon the Department of Energy, by law and agreement. The Committee will continue to operate in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, adhering to the rules and regulations in implementation of
that Act.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  Edmund J. Synakowski at (301) 903–

4941.

Issued in Washington, DC, on August 5,

2013.
Carol A. Matthews, Committee Management Officer.

[FR Doc. 2013–19473 Filed 8–9–13; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 6450–01–P**

**DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY**

**Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy** 

**Limited Public Interest Waiver Under the American Recovery and**  **Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)** 

**AGENCY :**  Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

**ACTION :**  Notice of Limited Waiver.

**SUMMARY :**  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is hereby granting a determination of inapplicability (unreasonable cost waiver) of section
1605 of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (Recovery Act Buy American provisions) to the California Energy Commission, recipient of EECBG grant EE0000905, for the installation of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at the City
of La Can  ̃ ada Flintridge City Hall building.

This waiver applies only to this project.

**DATES :**  Effective Date: September 12,

2012.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  Christine Platt-Patrick, Weatherization and Intergovernmental Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), (202) 287–1553, buyamerican@ee.doe.gov, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Mailstop EE–2K, Washington, DC

20585.

**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :**  Under the authority of the Recovery Act, section 1605(b)(3), the head of a Federal department or agency may issue a ‘‘determination of inapplicability’’ (a waiver of the Buy American provisions) if the application of section 1605 would represent an ‘unreasonable cost’. The authority of the Secretary of Energy to make all inapplicability determinations was re-delegated to the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), for EERE projects under the Recovery Act, in Redelegation Order No. 00–002.01E, dated April 25, 2011, for EERE Recovery Act projects.

Pursuant to this delegation, the Assistant Secretary has determined that application of section 1605 restrictions represents an ‘unreasonable cost’ for the project described herein.

Specifically, this unreasonable cost determination waives the Buy American requirements to the California Energy Commission, recipient of EECBG grant EE0000905, for the installation of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at the at the City of La Can  ̃ ada Flintridge City Hall building.

EERE has developed a robust process to ascertain in a systematic and expedient manner whether or not there is domestic manufacturing capacity for
the items submitted for a waiver of the Recovery Act Buy American provision. This process involves a close
collaboration with the United States Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), in order to scour the domestic manufacturing landscape in search of producers before making any nonavailability or unreasonable cost
determinations.

The NIST MEP has 59 regional centers with substantial knowledge of, and connections to, the domestic manufacturing sector. MEP uses their regional centers to ‘scout’ for current or potential manufacturers of the product(s) submitted in a waiver request. In the course of this interagency collaboration, MEP has been able to find exact or partial matches for manufactured goods that EERE grantees had been unable to locate. As a result, in those cases, EERE was able to workwith the grantees to procure Americanmade products rather than granting a

waiver.

Upon receipt of completed waiver requests for the product in the current waiver, EERE reviewed the information provided and submitted the relevant
technical information to the NIST MEP.
The MEP then used their network of
nationwide centers to scout for domestic
manufacturers.

In addition to the MEP collaboration outlined above, the EERE Buy American Team worked with labor unions, trade associations and other manufacturing
stakeholders to scout for domestic manufacturing capacity or an equivalent product for the HVAC components
contained in this waiver. EERE also conducted significant amounts of independent research to supplement MEP’s scouting efforts.

As a result of EERE’s efforts and MEP’s scouting process, it was
determined that if the described HVAC system was manufactured domestically, it will increase the total project cost by more than 25%.

The subject HVAC Replacement Project entails the replacement of eight (8) package rooftop units (gasheat/ electric cool) at the City of La Can  ̃ ada Flintridge City Hall building. Units are in the range of 2 1 ⁄ 2 to 5 tons in cooling capacity. New package units shall be equipped with air-side economizers and new roof curbs. The City solicited bid proposals for the project through a public bid process.

Contract drawings and specifications were created based on a Carrier design (Model 48ES Series) which at the time of document preparation was believed
to be manufactured in the United States. A ‘‘Product Bulletin’’ (dated July 26, 2010) from Carrier indicated that the Carrier unit (Model 48ES) was indeed manufactured in America not long ago. Specifically, the subject HVAC unit (48ES) was manufactured at Carrier’s plant in Tyler, TX, before recently moving its operation to Mexico.

The primary reason that Carrier (Model 48ES) was used as the basis of design for this project was because the existing units presently serving the City Hall building are also made by Carrier. In an effort to reduce project complexity and installation costs, it was understood that the proposed units shall have equal (or near equal) dimensions as the existing units. The sure way this would be accomplished is through use of new
Carrier units. While other manufacturers may have equal performance characteristics, dimensional data may be significantly different. This includes but is not limited to (a) Unit base dimensions/footprint, (b) unit height, (c) supply/return duct openings and dimensions, (d) electrical and natural gas line connection locations and clearances, all of which could impact the project’s complexity and costs. The grant recipient provided a mechanical unit schedule (from the Contract Drawings) in the application for a waiver, which includes a comparison of existing and proposed HVAC unit
dimensions.

City and Contractor then conducted a survey of the market to find HVAC Packaged Units that meet both the technical specs and the Buy American requirements. Four manufacturers were identified by the City, one was


### 48865 Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 155 / Monday, August 12, 2013 / Notices

identified by MEP. Accordingly, the City asked the Contractor to provide a price proposal for a change order that
would accommodate the domestic units.

In order to accommodate the domestic unit significant work would need to be
done to the roof and ductwork. This
work would include:

‘‘equipment curbs will be re-leveled using sloped 4x lumber to match the original rooftop duct work bottom layout and be attached to the building structure. 4 of the
units will need to be set back to allow for the hookup and transition to the existing duct work. The roof portion from where the existing equipment curb was will be properly re-roofed. Some of the existing roof ductwork will be demolished and disposed of properly to allow for the hook up of new duct. All 8 units will get new rooftop duct transitions, duct, fittings and duct supports to
accommodate the termination from the existing roof duct work to the new HVAC
units and economizers. All utilities will be extended to terminate on the new equipment. The existing condensate system will be reconfigured to terminate to the new equipment. A/C #3 will have to have the existing stub ups for the high & low voltage
relocated from the underside to accommodate the new equipment curb location and roofed in on completion.’’ (Contractor’s estimate, April 24, 2012)

The total cost of this additional work would be approximately $29,770.00. The total cost of the manufactured goods would remain the same, $52,350.00. The additional cost represents a 56.9% increase in total project costs.

Section 176.110 of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, entitled ‘‘Evaluating proposals of foreign iron, steel, and/or manufactured goods’’, states that if ‘‘the award official receives a request for an exception based on the cost of certain domestic iron, steel, and/or manufactured goods being unreasonable, in accordance with § 176.80, then the award official shall apply evaluation factors to the proposal to use such foreign iron, steel, and/or manufactured goods.’’

Per that section, the total evaluated cost = project cost estimate + (.25 × project cost estimate). The total cost of the project including the foreign manufactured HVAC is $52,350. The total evaluated cost is $52,350 + (.25 × $52,350) or $65,437.50

The minimum cost for the project with US products is $82,120, a cost increase of 56%. In light of the foregoing, and under the authority of section 1605(b)(3) of Public Law No. 111–5 and the Re-delegation Order dated April 25, 2011, with respect to Recovery Act projects funded by EERE, on October 24, 2011, the Acting Assistant Secretary issued a determination of inapplicability (unreasonable cost waiver) of section
1605 of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (Recovery Act Buy American provisions) to the California Energy Commission, recipient of EECBG grant EE0000905, for the installation of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at the at the City of La Can  ̃ ada Flintridge City Hall building. This waiver applies only to this project.

This waiver determination was made pursuant to the delegation of authority by the Secretary of Energy to the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy with respect to expenditures within the purview of his responsibility. Consequently, this waiver applies only to EERE projects carried out under the Recovery Act; and only to this project specifically, waiver requests, even for the same or similar items, will be handled individually, because individual factors apply to each project.

Authority: Public Law 111–5, section 1605.

Issued in Washington, DC on September

12, 2012.
David T. Danielson, Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy.

Editorial Note: This document was received at the Office of the Federal Register August 7, 2013.
[FR Doc. 2013–19477 Filed 8–9–13; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 6450–01–P**

**DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY**

**Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy** 

**Nationwide Categorical Waivers Under the American Recovery and**  **Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act)** 

**AGENCY :**  Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

**ACTION :**  Notice of Amended Limited

Waivers.

**SUMMARY :**  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is hereby granting an
Amended Waiver of section 1605 of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (Recovery Act Buy American provisions) in EERE-funded projects limiting the waiver issued February 11, 2010 to plug in CFLs of 10
inches or less and fluorescent electronic ballasts not capable of dimming.

**DATES :**  Effective Date: 01/31/2013.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  Christine Platt-Patrick, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), (202) 586–7691, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Mailstop EE–2K, Washington, DC

20585.

**SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :**  Under the authority of Recovery Act, Public Law 111–5, section 1605(b)(2), the head of a Federal department or agency may issue a ‘‘determination of inapplicability’’ (a waiver of the Buy American provision) if the iron, steel, or relevant manufactured good is not produced or
manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality (‘‘nonavailability’’). The authority of the Secretary of Energy to make allinapplicability determinations was redelegated to the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), for EERE projects under the Recovery Act, in Redelegation Order No. 00–002.01F, dated October 31, 2012.

On February 11, 2010, The Assistant Secretary issued a nonavailability
waiver for fluorescent electronic
ballasts.

As with all waivers, the Assistant Secretary reserved the right to revisit
and amend this determination based on any changes in the manufacturing landscape, such as the entry into the
market of new domestic manufacturers. In this case, domestic manufacturers have retooled manufacturing lines and increased manufacturing capacity to the United States, reducing costs associated with producing dimmable fluorescent electronic ballasts and complete dimming systems including controls, decreasing the price and broadening the scope of domestically manufactured systems available for purchase.

The remaining items covered by the February 2010 Waiver (Plug in CFLs of
10 inches or less and fluorescent electronic ballasts not capable of dimming) continue to be covered by the February 11, 2010 waiver and remain subject to the specifications and
conditions of that waiver.

In order for the withdrawn waivers to continue to apply substantial steps to commit funds for the purchase of the formerly waived items must have been made on or before March 31, 2013.

Substantial steps to commit funds would include, but are not limited to, (1) issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) on or before March 31, 2013 (applicable only where the grantee accepts a proposal received under that RFP); (2)
in the case of a sole source selection: placing an order for the goods on or before March 31, 2013; (3) commencing a bidding process on or before March 31, 2013; (4) in circumstances where the grantee solicited quotes without an RFP: the grantee purchases the goods based on a quote dated on or before March 31,