Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 43 / Monday, March 5, 2012 / Notices 13117 

project, please select ‘‘Comment on a 

Filing’’; or 

(3) You can file a paper copy of your 

comments by mailing them to the 

following address: 

Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 

First Street NE., Room 1A, 

Washington, DC 20426. 

Environmental Mailing List 

The environmental mailing list 

includes federal, state, and local 

government representatives and 

agencies; elected officials; 

environmental and public interest 

groups; Native American Tribes; other 

interested parties; and local libraries 

and newspapers. This list also includes 

affected landowners (as defined in the 

Commission’s regulations) who are 

potential right-of-way grantors, whose 

property may be used temporarily for 

project purposes, or who own homes 

within certain distances of aboveground 

facilities, and anyone who submits 

comments on the project. We will 

update the environmental mailing list as 

the analysis proceeds to ensure that we 

send the information related to this 

environmental review to all individuals, 

organizations, and government entities 

interested in and/or potentially affected 

by the planned project. 

Becoming an Intervenor 

Once FGT files its application with 

the Commission, you may want to 

become an ‘‘intervenor’’ which is an 

official party to the Commission’s 

proceeding. Intervenors play a more 

formal role in the process and are able 

to file briefs, appear at hearings, and be 

heard by the courts if they choose to 

appeal the Commission’s final ruling. 

An intervenor formally participates in 

the proceeding by filing a request to 

intervene. Instructions for becoming an 

intervenor are in the User’s Guide under 

the ‘‘e-filing’’ link on the Commission’s 

Web site. Please note that the 

Commission will not accept requests for 

intervenor status at this time. You must 

wait until the Commission receives a 

formal application for the project. 

Additional Information 

Additional information about the 

project is available from the 

Commission’s Office of External Affairs, 

at (866) 208–FERC, or on the FERC Web 

site (www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary 

link. Click on the eLibrary link, click on 

‘‘General Search’’ and enter the docket 

number, excluding the last three digits 

in the Docket Number field (i.e., PF12– 

5–000). Be sure you have selected an 

appropriate date range. For assistance, 

please contact FERC Online Support at 

FercOnlineSupport@ferc.gov or toll free 

at (866) 208–3676, or for TTY, contact 

(202) 502–8659. The eLibrary link also 

provides access to the texts of formal 

documents issued by the Commission, 

such as orders, notices, and 

rulemakings. 

In addition, the Commission offers a 

free service called eSubscription which 

allows you to keep track of all formal 

issuances and submittals in specific 

dockets. This can reduce the amount of 

time you spend researching proceedings 

by automatically providing you with 

notification of these filings, document 

summaries, and direct links to the 

documents. Go to www.ferc.gov/ 

esubscribenow.htm. 

Finally, public meetings or site visits 

will be posted on the Commission’s 

calendar located at www.ferc.gov/ 

EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along 

with other related information. 

Dated: February 28, 2012. 

Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2012–5234 Filed 3–2–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. PF12–4–000] 

Excelerate Energy L.P.; Notice of Intent 

To Prepare an Environmental Impact 

Statement for the Planned Aguirre 

Offshore Gasport Project, Request for 

Comments on Environmental Issues, 

and Notice of Public Scoping Meetings 

The staff of the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission (FERC or 

Commission) will prepare an 

environmental impact statement (EIS) 

that will address the environmental 

impacts of the Aguirre Offshore GasPort 

Project involving construction and 

operation of facilities by Excelerate 

Energy L.P. (Excelerate) in Salinas, 

Puerto Rico. The Commission will use 

this EIS in its decision-making process 

to determine whether the project is in 

the public interest. 

This notice announces the opening of 

the scoping process that the 

Commission will use to gather input 

from the public and interested agencies 

on the project. Your input will help the 

Commission staff determine what issues 

they need to evaluate in the EIS. Please 

note that the scoping period will close 

on March 30, 2012. 

You may submit comments in written 

form or verbally. Further details on how 

to submit written comments are in the 

Public Participation section of this 

notice. In lieu of or in addition to 

sending written comments, the 

Commission invites you to attend the 

public scoping meetings scheduled as 

indicated below. The Commission will 

conduct the public scoping meetings in 

English, but there will be a concurrent 

Spanish language translation available. 

Date and time Location 

March 20, 2012; 7 p.m. AST ........................................... Lions Club, Carretera 3 km Street Carrete, Guayama, Puerto Rico 00785. 

March 21, 2012; 7 p.m. AST ........................................... Marina de Salinas, P.R. 701 (end) Playa Ward, Salinas, Puerto Rico 00751. 

This notice is being sent to the 

Commission’s current environmental 

mailing list for this project. A flyer 

containing a brief project description 

and the above meeting information 

distributed in the general project area 

presents information on how to obtain 

copies of this notice in Spanish. State 

and local government representatives 

should notify their constituents of this 

planned project and encourage them to 

comment on their areas of concern. 

Summary of the Proposed Project 

Excelerate has announced its plans to 

construct and operate a maritime 

liquefied natural gas (LNG) import 

terminal and approximately 4 miles of 

18-inch-diameter pipeline linking the 

receiving facility to the existing onshore 

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s 

Central Aguirre Power Plant (CAPP). 

The LNG terminal would be in Puerto 

Rican waters, about 1 mile outside of 

Jobos Bay and 4 miles off the southern 

coast of Puerto Rico, near the towns of 

Salinas and Guayama. This offshore 

portion of the project would consist of 

a fixed platform and a permanently 

docked storage and regasification vessel. 

The facility would operate year-round to 

receive, vaporize, and deliver up to 500 

million cubic feet per day of natural gas 

to the CAPP. 

Specifically, the Aguirre Offshore 

GasPort Project would consist of the 

following: 


erowe on DSK2VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
13118 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 43 / Monday, March 5, 2012 / Notices 

1The appendices referenced in this notice are not 

being printed in the Federal Register. Copies of 

appendices were sent to all those receiving this 

notice in the mail and are available at www.ferc.gov 

using the link called ‘‘eLibrary’’ or from the 

Commission’s Public Reference Room, 888 First 

Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, or call (202) 

502–8371. For instructions on connecting to 

eLibrary, refer to the last page of this notice. 

2 ‘‘We,’’ ‘‘us,’’ and ‘‘our’’ refer to the 

environmental staff of the Commission’s Office of 

Energy Projects. 

3The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation 

regulations are at Title 36, Code of Federal 

Regulations, Part 800. Those regulations define 

historic properties as any prehistoric or historic 

district, site, building, structure, or object included 

in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register 

for Historic Places. 

• Construction of a fixed platform 

carrying topside facilities and two 

berths, one on each side of the fixed 

platform; 

• Permanent docking of an LNG 

vessel at the fixed platform with a 

storage capacity of 150,900 cubic 

meters; 

• Construction of about 4 miles of 

new 18-inch-diameter subsea pipeline, 

which would be coated in protective 

concrete and laid atop the sea floor; and 

• Construction of a new onshore 

metering and regulating (M&R) station 

within the boundaries of the power 

plant. 

The general location of the project 

facilities is shown in Appendix 1.1

Land Requirements for Construction 

Excelerate is still in the planning 

phase for the Aguirre Offshore GasPort 

Project, and workspace requirements 

have not been finalized. However, all 

facility construction would be 

completed offshore with the exception 

of the M&R station. Following 

construction, less than 1 acre would be 

used for permanent operation of the 

project’s onshore facilities. 

The EIS Process 

The National Environmental Policy 

Act (NEPA) requires the Commission to 

take into account the environmental 

impacts that could result from an action 

whenever it considers authorizing new 

natural gas facilities. NEPA also requires 

us 2 to discover and address concerns 

the public may have about proposals. 

This process is referred to as scoping. 

The main goal of the scoping process is 

to focus the analysis in the EIS on the 

important environmental issues. By this 

notice, the Commission requests public 

comments on the scope of the issues to 

address in the EIS. We will consider all 

filed comments during the preparation 

of the EIS. 

In the EIS we will discuss impacts 

that could occur as a result of the 

construction and operation of the 

planned project under these general 

headings: 

• Geology and soils; 

• Water resources and sea floor; 

• Marine vegetation; 

• Fisheries, wildlife, and endangered 

and threatened species; 

• Cultural resources; 

• Land use; 

• Air quality and noise; 

• Socioeconomics; and 

• Public safety. 

We will also evaluate possible 

alternatives to the planned project or 

portions of the project, and make 

recommendations on how to lessen or 

avoid impacts on the various resource 

areas. 

Although no formal application has 

been filed, we have already initiated our 

NEPA review under the Commission’s 

pre-filing process. The purpose of the 

pre-filing process is to encourage early 

involvement of interested stakeholders 

and to identify and resolve issues before 

the FERC receives an application. As 

part of our pre-filing review, we have 

begun to contact some federal and state 

agencies to discuss their involvement in 

the scoping process and the preparation 

of the EIS. In addition, we participated 

in Excelerate’s February 2, 2012 public 

informational open house meeting in 

the project area to explain the 

environmental review process to 

interested stakeholders and to answer 

questions about the FERC process. 

We will present our independent 

analysis of the issues in the EIS, which 

we will publish in both English and 

Spanish and distribute for public 

comment. After the comment period, we 

will consider all timely comments and 

revise the document, as necessary, 

before issuing a final EIS. To ensure we 

have the opportunity to consider your 

comments, please carefully follow the 

instructions in the Public Participation 

section of this notice beginning on 

page 5. 

With this notice, we are asking 

agencies with jurisdiction by law and/ 

or special expertise with respect to the 

environmental issues related to this 

project to formally cooperate with us in 

the preparation of the EIS. Agencies that 

would like to request cooperating 

agency status should follow the 

instructions for filing comments 

provided under the Public Participation 

section of this notice. Currently, the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. 

Coast Guard have expressed their 

intentions to participate as cooperating 

agencies in the preparation of the EIS to 

satisfy their NEPA responsibilities 

related to this project. 

Consultations Under Section 106 of the 

National Historic Preservation Act 

In accordance with the Advisory 

Council on Historic Preservation’s 

implementing regulations for Section 

106 of the National Historic 

Preservation Act, we are using this 

notice to initiate consultation with the 

Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation 

Office (SHPO), and to solicit their views 

and those of other government agencies 

and the public on the project’s potential 

effects on historic properties.3 We will 

define the project-specific Area of 

Potential Effects (APE) in consultation 

with the SHPO as the project develops. 

On natural gas facility projects, the APE 

at a minimum encompasses all areas 

subject to ground disturbance (including 

contractor/pipe storage yards and access 

roads). Our EIS for this project will 

document our findings on the impacts 

on cultural resources and summarize 

the status of consultations under 

Section 106. 

Currently Identified Environmental 

Issues 

We have already identified several 

issues and alternatives that we think 

deserve attention based on a 

preliminary review of the planned 

facilities, comments made to us at the 

informational open house, preliminary 

consultations with other agencies, and 

initial environmental information 

provided by Excelerate. This 

preliminary list of issues may be 

changed based on your comments and 

our analysis: 

• Impacts on recreational fishing, 

marine mammals, and shipping traffic 

in Jobos Bay and near the offshore 

facility; and 

• Visual impacts. 

Public Participation 

You can make a difference by 

providing us with your specific 

comments or concerns about the project. 

Your comments should focus on the 

potential environmental effects, 

reasonable alternatives, and measures to 

avoid or lessen environmental impacts. 

The more specific your comments, the 

more useful they will be. To ensure that 

your comments are timely and properly 

recorded, please send your comments so 

that the Commission receives them in 

Washington, DC on or before March 30, 

2012. 

For your convenience, there are four 

methods you can use to submit your 

comments to the Commission. In all 

instances, please reference the project 

docket number (PF12–4–000) with your 

submission. The Commission 

encourages electronic filing of 

comments and has expert staff available 


erowe on DSK2VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 43 / Monday, March 5, 2012 / Notices 13119 

to assist you at (202) 502–8258 or 

efiling@ferc.gov. 

(1) You can file your comments 

electronically by using the eComment 

feature located on the Commission’s 

Web site (www.ferc.gov) under the link 

to Documents and Filings. This is an 

easy method for interested persons to 

submit brief, text-only comments on a 

project; 

(2) You can file your comments 

electronically using the eFiling feature 

located on the Commission’s Web site 

(www.ferc.gov), under the link 

Documents and Filings. With eFiling, 

you can provide comments in a variety 

of formats by attaching them as a file 

with your submission. New eFiling 

users must first create an account by 

clicking on eRegister. You must select 

the type of filing you are making. If you 

are filing a comment on a particular 

project, please select ‘‘Comment on a 

Filing’’; 

(3) You can file a paper copy of your 

comments by mailing them to the 

following address: Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission, 888 First Street NE., Room 

1A, Washington, DC 20426. 

(4) You can also place your written 

comments in the Aguirre Offshore 

GasPort Project Comment Box located at 

the Salinas Public Library. We will 

arrange for our contractor to forward 

comments in the drop box directly to 

FERC where they will be placed into the 

public file for the project. The library is 

located on Calle Santos P Amadeo in 

Salinas, Puerto Rico and is open from 

Monday to Thursday from 9:30 to 6 p.m. 

and Friday from 8 to 4:30. The library 

is closed on weekends. 

Environmental Mailing List 

The environmental mailing list 

includes federal, commonwealth, and 

local government representatives and 

agencies; elected officials; 

environmental and public interest 

groups; other interested parties; and 

local libraries and newspapers. This list 

also includes all affected landowners (as 

defined in the Commission’s 

regulations) who are potential right-ofway grantors, whose property may be 

used temporarily for project purposes, 

or who own homes within certain 

distances of aboveground facilities, and 

anyone who submits comments on the 

project. We will continue to update the 

environmental mailing list as the 

analysis proceeds to ensure that we 

send the information related to this 

environmental review to all individuals, 

organizations, and government entities 

interested in and/or potentially affected 

by the planned project. 

Copies of the completed draft EIS will 

be sent to the environmental mailing list 

for public review and comment. This 

distribution will be a CD containing 

both the English and Spanish version of 

the document. If you would prefer to 

receive a paper copy of the document 

instead of the CD version or would like 

to remove your name from the mailing 

list, please return the attached 

Information Request (Appendix 2). The 

return mailer provides you the 

opportunity to request either an English 

or Spanish version of the EIS hard copy. 

Becoming an Intervenor 

Once Excelerate files its application 

with the Commission, you may want to 

become an ‘‘intervenor,’’ which is an 

official party to the Commission’s 

proceeding. Intervenors play a more 

formal role in the process and are able 

to file briefs, appear at hearings, and be 

heard by the courts if they choose to 

appeal the Commission’s final ruling. 

An intervenor formally participates in a 

Commission proceeding by filing a 

request to intervene. Instructions for 

becoming an intervenor are included in 

the User’s Guide under the ‘‘e-filing’’ 

link on the Commission’s Web site. 

Please note that the Commission will 

not accept requests for intervenor status 

at this time. You must wait until the 

Commission receives a formal 

application for the project. 

Additional Information 

Additional information about the 

project is available from the 

Commission’s Office of External Affairs, 

at (866) 208–FERC or on the FERC Web 

site (www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary 

link. Click on the eLibrary link, click on 

‘‘General Search,’’ and enter the docket 

number, excluding the last three digits 

in the Docket Number field (i.e., PF12– 

4). Be sure you have selected an 

appropriate date range. For assistance, 

please contact FERC Online Support at 

FercOnlineSupport@ferc.gov or toll free 

at (866) 208–3676, or for TTY, contact 

(202) 502–8659. The eLibrary link also 

provides access to the texts of formal 

documents issued by the Commission, 

such as orders, notices, and 

rulemakings. 

In addition, the Commission offers a 

free service called eSubscription which 

allows you to keep track of all formal 

issuances and submittals in specific 

dockets. This can reduce the amount of 

time you spend researching proceedings 

by automatically providing you with 

notification of these filings, document 

summaries, and direct links to the 

documents. Go to www.ferc.gov/ 

esubscribenow.htm. 

Finally, public meetings or site visits 

will be posted on the Commission’s 

calendar located at www.ferc.gov/ 

EventCalendar/EventsList.aspx along 

with other related information. 

Dated: February 28, 2012. 

Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2012–5233 Filed 3–2–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. PR12–15–000] 

Enogex LLC; Notice of Filing 

Take notice that on February 24, 2011, 

Enogex LLC (Enogex) filed pursuant to 

Exhibit A to its Operating Conditions 

Applicable to Transportation Services 

(SOC) and section 284.123(e) of the 

Commission’s regulations, to revise its 

annual fuel percentages as more fully 

described in the filing. 

Any person desiring to participate in 

this rate filing must file in accordance 

with Rules 211 and 214 of the 

Commission’s Rules of Practice and 

Procedure (18 CFR 385.211 and 

385.214). Protests will be considered by 

the Commission in determining the 

appropriate action to be taken, but will 

not serve to make protestants parties to 

the proceeding. Any person wishing to 

become a party must file a notice of 

intervention or motion to intervene, as 

appropriate. Such notices, motions, or 

protests must be filed on or before the 

date as indicated below. Anyone filing 

an intervention or protest must serve a 

copy of that document on the Applicant. 

Anyone filing an intervention or protest 

on or before the intervention or protest 

date need not serve motions to intervene 

or protests on persons other than the 

Applicant. 

The Commission encourages 

electronic submission of protests and 

interventions in lieu of paper using the 

‘‘eFiling’’ link at http://www.ferc.gov. 

Persons unable to file electronically 

should submit an original and 7 copies 

of the protest or intervention to the 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 

888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 

20426. 

This filing is accessible on-line at 

http://www.ferc.gov, using the 

‘‘eLibrary’’ link and is available for 

review in the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room in Washington, DC. 

There is an ‘‘eSubscription’’ link on the 

Web site that enables subscribers to 

receive email notification when a 


erowe on DSK2VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES