9906 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 34 / Tuesday, February 21, 2012 / Notices 

Comments on the proposed 

information collection should be 

submitted electronically to 

HAVAinfo@eac.gov with Urban/Rural 

study as the subject line. Written 

comments on the proposed information 

collection can also be sent to the U.S. 

Election Assistance Commission, 1201 

New York Avenue NW., Suite 300, 

Washington, DC 20005, ATTN: Urban/ 

Rural Study. 

Obtaining a Copy of the Survey: To 

obtain a free copy of the survey: (1) 

Access the EAC Web site at 

www.eac.gov; (2) write to the EAC 

(including your address and phone 

number) at U.S. Election Assistance 

Commission, 1201 New York Avenue 

NW., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 

ATTN: Urban/Rural Study. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Karen Lynn-Dyson or Ms. Shelly 

Anderson at (202) 566–3100. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title and OMB Number: Election 

Administration in Urban and Rural 

Areas; OMB Number Pending. 

Summary of the Collection of 

Information: The survey requests 

information at the local level concerning 

the following categories: 

Background: (1) Number of years 

served as an election official; (2) number 

of registered voters; (3) jurisdiction 

described as urban or rural; (4) 

jurisdiction required to provide 

language assistance; (5) office have full 

responsibility for elections in the 

jurisdiction; (6) alternative forms of 

voting allowed in the jurisdiction 

(absentee-excuse required, no-excuse 

absentee, early voting, all vote-by-mail). 

Voter Outreach: (7) Type of voter 

outreach provided to the public; (8) 

outreach efforts coordinated with thirdparty/civic organizations; type of voter 

outreach coordinated; type of 

organizations with which the 

jurisdiction works; (9) voter outreach 

activities that focus on specific groups; 

(10) cost of voter outreach efforts in 

2010; (11) estimated cost of voter 

outreach efforts in 2012; (12) how voter 

outreach efforts were paid for; (13) ease 

or difficulty of engaging in voter 

outreach; (14) reasons outreach may 

have been difficult. 

Personnel: (15) Number of paid fulltime, part-time, and temporary staff in 

2010; 16) number of poll workers used 

in 2010; (17) number of paid full-time, 

part-time, and temporary staff in 2012; 

(18) number of poll workers used in 

2012; (19) poll worker pay; (20) sources 

for recruiting poll workers; (21) ease or 

difficulty of obtaining poll workers; (22) 

reasons obtaining poll workers may 

have been difficult; (23) jurisdiction 

offer split shifts for poll workers; (24) 

additional comments. 

Affected Public (Respondents): Local 

governments that administer Federal 

elections. 

Affected Public: Local government. 

Number of Respondents: 5,000. 

Responses per Respondent: 1. 

Estimated Burden Per Response: 45 

minutes. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 2,250 hours. 

Frequency: One-time data collection. 

Mark A. Robbins, 

Acting Executive Director, U.S. Election 

Assistance Commission. 

[FR Doc. 2012–3737 Filed 2–17–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–KF–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Office of Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy 

Nationwide Categorical Waivers Under 

Section 1605 (Buy American) of 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 waivers. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE) is hereby granting a 

nationwide limited waiver of the Buy 

American requirements of section 1605 

of the Recovery Act under the authority 

of Section 1605(b)(2), (iron, steel, and 

the relevant manufactured goods are not 

produced in the United States in 

sufficient and reasonably available 

quantities and of a satisfactory quality), 

with respect to Recovery Act projects 

funded by EERE for ((1) 400 amp Dual 

Element Time-Delay Fuses for electric 

vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) 

charging station; (2) Video imaging card 

rack mounted boards for vehicle 

presence and data detection; (3) 20-ton 

split system heat pump that meets a 

minimum static pressure requirement of 

3.0 inches of water column (only where 

the 3.0 water column is a requirement 

of the system); and (4) network manager 

for conversion of proprietary protocol— 

Staefa brand system—to a nonproprietary open source protocol. 

DATES: Effective Date: 01/24/2012. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Christine Platt-Patrick, Office of Energy 

Efficiency and Renewable Energy 

(EERE), (202) 287–1553, Department of 

Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue 

SW., Mailstop EE–2K, Washington, DC 

20585. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the 

authority of American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (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 all 

inapplicability 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. 00–002.01E, dated April 25, 2011. 

Pursuant to this delegation the Acting 

Assistant Secretary, EERE, has 

concluded that: (1) 400amp Dual 

Element Time-Delay Fuses for electric 

vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) 

charging station; (2) Video imaging card 

rack mounted boards for vehicle 

presence and data detection; (3) 20-ton 

split system heat pump that meets a 

minimum static pressure requirement of 

3.0 inches of water column (only where 

the 3.0 water column is a requirement 

of the system); and (4) network manager 

for conversion of proprietary protocol— 

Staefa brand system—to a nonproprietary open source protocol, are 

not produced or manufactured in the 

United States in sufficient and 

reasonably available quantities and of a 

satisfactory quality. The above items, 

when used on eligible EERE Recovery 

Act-funded projects, qualify for the 

‘‘nonavailability’’ waiver determination. 

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 determinations. 

The 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 

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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 34 / Tuesday, February 21, 2012 / Notices 9907 

manufactured goods that EERE grantees 

had been unable to locate. As a result, 

in those cases, EERE was able to work 

with the grantees to procure Americanmade products rather than granting a 

waiver. 

Upon receipt of completed waiver 

requests for the four products in the 

current waiver, EERE reviewed the 

information provided and submitted the 

relevant technical information to the 

MEP. The MEP then used their network 

of nationwide centers to scout for 

domestic manufacturers. The MEP 

reported that their scouting process did 

not locate any domestic manufacturers 

for these exact or equivalent items. 

In addition to the MEP collaboration 

outlined above, the EERE Buy American 

Coordinator worked with other 

manufacturing stakeholders to scout for 

domestic manufacturing capacity or an 

equivalent product for each item 

contained in this waiver. 

EERE also conducted significant 

amounts of independent research to 

supplement MEP’s scouting efforts, 

including utilizing the solar experts 

employed by the Department of Energy’s 

National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 

EERE’s research efforts confirmed the 

MEP findings that the goods included in 

this waiver are not produced in the 

United States in sufficient and 

reasonably available quantities and of a 

satisfactory quality. 

The nonavailability determination is 

also informed by the inquiries and 

petitions to EERE from recipients of 

EERE Recovery Act funds, and from 

suppliers, distributors, retailers and 

trade associations—all stating that their 

individual efforts to locate domestic 

manufacturers for these items have been 

unsuccessful. 

Specific technical information for the 

manufactured goods included in this 

non-availability determination is 

detailed below: 

(1) 400amp Dual Element Time-Delay 

Fuses for electric vehicle supply 

equipment (EVSE) charging station 

These are used in the installation of 

EV charging stations. Two national trade 

organizations representing American 

manufacturers of this equipment 

verified that these are not manufactured 

in the US. Further, MEP did not identify 

a potential manufacturer. 

(2) Video imaging card rack mounted 

boards for vehicle presence and data 

detection 

These card racks are installed into 

existing traffic systems and are not 

manufactured domestically. Neither 

transportation manufacturing trade 

associations nor MEP identified any US 

manufacturer of this product. 

(3) 20-ton split system heat pump that 

meets a minimum static pressure 

requirement of 3.0 inches of water 

column (only where the 3.0 water 

column is a requirement of the system) 

This waiver is limited to systems that 

require compatibility with this 

extremely high water column. No US 

manufacturers (four manufacturers of 

this type of equipment were identified 

by EERE and MEP and contacted) were 

able to meet this need. 

(4) Network manager for conversion of 

proprietary protocol- Staefa brand 

system to a non-proprietary open source 

protocol 

For use where a Staefa system was 

installed previously, and where 

utilizing a domestic control module 

would mean that the existing energy 

management controls would have to be 

removed and a new energy management 

controls system would have to replace 

the existing Staefa system. This product 

allows the grantee to convert from the 

proprietary protocol to an open-source 

protocol- providing a wider variety of 

controls in the future. 

In these cases, the grantee is unable to 

use a domestic control module because 

the existing system runs off of a 

proprietary communication protocol 

(rather than LON or BACnet), and the 

entire system would have to be replaced 

to install additional controllers. Trade 

organizations, DOE and MEP all agreed 

that this was the only controller capable 

of properly interfacing with this 

protocol. 

In light of the foregoing, and under 

the authority of section 1605(b)(2) of 

Public Law 111–5 and Redelegation 

Order 00–002–01E, with respect to 

Recovery Act projects funded by EERE, 

I hereby issue a ‘‘determination of 

inapplicability’’ (a waiver under the 

Recovery Act Buy American provision) 

for: ((1) 400amp Dual Element TimeDelay Fuses for electric vehicle supply 

equipment (EVSE) charging station; (2) 

Video imaging card rack mounted 

boards for vehicle presence and data 

detection; (3) 20-ton split system heat 

pump that meets a minimum static 

pressure requirement of 3.0 inches of 

water column (only where the 3.0 water 

column is a requirement of the system); 

and (4) network manager for conversion 

of proprietary protocol- Staefa brand 

system- to a non-proprietary open 

source protocol. 

Having established a proper 

justification based on domestic 

nonavailability, EERE hereby provides 

notice that on January 24, 2012, four (4) 

nationwide categorical waivers of 

section 1605 of the Recovery Act were 

issued as detailed supra. This notice 

constitutes the detailed written 

justification required by Section 1605(c) 

for waivers based on a finding under 

subsection (b). 

This waiver determination is 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 to all EERE projects 

carried out under the Recovery Act. 

Authority: Pub. L. 111–5, section 1605. 

Dated: Issued in Washington, DC, on 

January 24, 2012. 

Henry Kelly, 

Acting Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency 

and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of 

Energy. 

[FR Doc. 2012–3939 Filed 2–17–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Office of Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy 

[Case No. CW–023] 

Notice of Petition for Waiver of LG 

Electronics U.S.A., Inc. From the 

Department of Energy Clothes Washer 

Test Procedure, and Grant of Interim 

Waiver 

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy, Department of 

Energy. 

ACTION: Notice of petition for waiver, 

notice of grant of interim waiver, and 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces receipt 

of and publishes the LG Electronics 

U.S.A., Inc. (LG) petition for waiver and 

application for interim waiver 

(hereafter, ‘‘petition’’) from specified 

portions of the U.S. Department of 

Energy (DOE) test procedure for 

determining the energy consumption of 

clothes washers. Today’s notice also 

grants an interim waiver of the clothes 

washer test procedure. Through this 

notice, DOE also solicits comments with 

respect to the LG petition. 

DATES: DOE will accept comments, data, 

and information with respect to the LG 

petition March 22, 2012. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by case number CW–023, by 

any of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Email: 

AS_Waiver_Requests@ee.doe.gov. 

Include ‘‘Case No. CW–023’’ in the 

subject line of the message. 

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