1 IN FORMAT ION COLLECTI ON REQUEST (ICR)

SUPPORTING STATEMENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY OFFI CE OF AIR & RADIATION A. JUSTIFICATION 1. Id entification 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 usin g certain foreign
- grown feedstocks to use an aggregate approach to compl y 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 bas ed 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 R enewable F uel S tandard ( 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
. P ractical Utility

/Uses of the Data The data collected under this I CR will be used for EPA to evaluate/grant petitions
.2

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 vari ous 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 is seeking comment on rep orting requi rements via Notice . We have also docketed a copy of our draft ICR supporting statement.
c. Consultations We draw upon our experience with the Renewable Fuel Program and have utilized the estimates used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures from "National Industry
- Specific Occupational Employ ment & Wage Estimate “Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing” (May 2011)
. The estimated burden is based upon similar petitioning processes used within the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program
. 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 on ly 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 . G eneral 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 ye ars. 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 r etention for five years f rom the d ate the records were created. Any information claimed a s confidential will be treated in accordance with 40 CFR Part 2 and established Agency procedures. In formation that is received without a claim of confidentiality may be made available to the public without further f. Confidentiality Respondents may

a ssert claims of business confidentiality (CBI) for any or all of the information they

submit. We do not believe that most respondents would characterize3

the information they

submit to us under this information collection as CBI. However, any i nformation c laimed as confidential will be treated in accordance with 40 CFR Part 2 and established Agency

procedures . Information th at 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/SI C 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. Inthe case of these petitions, we anticipate that they

may come from foreign trade associations or governmental entities. Potentially

r egulated categories include: Category NAI CS 1

Codes SI C 2

Codes Examples of Potentially Regulated Entities Industry Industry Industry Industry Industry Industry Industry 324110

325193 32519 9 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 S ys tem (NAI CS) 2 Standard Industrial Classification (SI C) s ys tem code. b. In formation 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) ye ars . 5. The Information Collected, Agency Activities, Collection Methodology, and In formation Management4

a. Agency

Activities

 All petitions will be reviewed b y EPA.  Petitions will be stored by EPA
.  A response (grant, denial, etc.) will be issued b y 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, w e 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. In formation claimed as CBI will be stored in appropriately controlled areas.
c. Small Entity

Flexibility This collection will not adversel y aff ect small entities. d. Collection Schedule We anticipate each petitioner will submit one petition
. 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 area s during the three ye ars covered b y 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 use d the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures from "National Industry
- Specific Occupational Employ ment & Wa ge Estimate “Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing” (May 201 1), 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 :
Wa ges and Benefits Managerial $67.44 per hour Te chnical $65.56 per hour Clerical $22.17 per hour5

Doubling for compan y overhead beyond wages and benefits, and for convenience, rounding up to the dollar, gives the following rates for this I CR:

To tal Employer Cost Managerial $135.00 per hour Te chnical $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 man agerial, 0.7 hour technical, and 0.2 hour clerical. This gives an average labor cost of $1 14 per hour, which will be used in this I CR. For purchased services related to attest engagements and some items of registration, we have doubled this hourly cost to $2 28 in order to more accuratel y reflect the cost of a certified public accountant (CP A) or licensed professional engineer's (PE) services
. We estimate that each petition will take 40 hours to prepare. Since the ICR covers a three ye ar period, the annual hourly burden is divided by

three to yield 13.33 hours per year per respondent. The total annual burd en by party is estimated as follows:6 In formation Collection Burden b y T ype of Party In formation 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 13.33 1519.62 199.95 22794.3

Total 15 15 199.95 22794.30 Estimating Agency

Burden and Cost No response is required to notifications unless a potential violation is noted. This activity will present no significant, quantifiable burden to the Agency
. 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 ye ars 900 burden hour s . We have two full
- time GS
- 13 technical worker s working 8 hours per response , and a GS
- 15 manager all working 4 hours of his/her time managing this project per response . Th e Agency

burden consist of two GS
- 13 technical worker $81.55 an hour including overhead, and a GS
- 15 manager $ 113.36 an hour including overhead for an Agency burden of $ 1,758.24 per response. With an annual total of $26,373.60 These estimates are derived from "OPM Salary Table 2 010
- DCB," effective January 2010 . This table may

be found at http:// archive .opm.gov/oca/ 10 tables/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 I CRs to account for overhead costs). We rounded the resulting dollar value to the nearest tenth
. 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 or more manager s will be required to expend a total of 4 hours per response . Contractors will not be used to handle these applications and are no t included.7 Agency Burden

**Col lection Activity**  **Num ber of**  **Parties Number**  **of**

**Responses per Party**  **Total N**  **um ber** 

**of Responses**  **Time per**

**Response Cost** 

**p er**  **Response Tot** **al**

**Hour s**  **Tot al**  **Cost**
**Third P arty D**  **is closure** 

Ev al ua te D ata - Techn ic al - $82 per h ou r 15 1 15 8 656 120 9840
Pr epar e an d sen d Respon se - Te ch ni cal - $82 per ho ur 15 1 15 8 656 120 9840

Ev al ua te D ata - Man ager $113 per h ou r 15 1 15 4 452 60 6780
**TOTA L**  **30 30**  **240 26460**  **In fo**  **rmatio n**  **Col le**  **cti on**  **Burden by**  **Type of Part**  **y** Agency Bur

den Hours & Cost

d. Estimating the Respondent Universe We based our estimate upon the number of petitions we expect to receive and invite further c omment from interested parties.
e. Bottom L ine Burden Hours and Costs From the Table on pag e 6 we estimate the following: TOTAL NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS: 15 TOTAL NO. OF RES PONSES : 15 TOTAL BURDEN HOURS (ANNUAL) : 2 00 * TOTAL COST (ANNUAL): $ 2 2 , 7 9 4 * (*Rounded up to the next hour or dollar from the Information Collection Request Burden by Ty pe of Party table above.)
f. Reason for Change in Burden There is no increase of hours in the total estimated respondent burden compared with the ICR currentl y approved by OMB. The respondent universe and responses also remained the same in this collec tion. There was in increase in cost to the industry of $8,598 per ye ar due to better numbers used to calculate the industry burden and to account for inflation.8

g. Burden Statement The average respondent burden in hours per respon dent , per year, for this ICR is estimated at 14 hours (i.e., 13.33 hours from the table, rounded up). Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended b y 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 p roviding information; adjust the existing way s to compl y 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 an y suggested methods for minimizing respondent burden, i ncluding the use of automated collection techniques, EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID Number EPA
- HQ
- OAR
- 2010
- 0133 , whi ch 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 holiday s. 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 th at are available electronically . When in the sy stem, select “search,” then key in the Docket ID Number identified above. Also, yo u 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
- OAR
2010
- 0133 and OMB Control Number 2060
- 0 655 in any correspondence.