4360 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 27, 2010 / Notices 

Provider Fleets; (3) Type of Review: 

renewal; (4) Purpose: the information is 

required so that DOE can determine 

whether alternative fuel provider and 

State government fleets are in 

compliance with the alternative fueled 

vehicle acquisition mandates of sections 

501 and 507(o) of the EPACT, whether 

such fleets should be allocated credits 

under section 508 of EPACT, and 

whether fleets that opted into the 

alternative compliance program under 

section 514 of EPACT are in compliance 

with the applicable requirements; (5) 

Annual Estimated Number of 

Respondents: Approximately 300; (6) 

Annual Estimated Number of Burden 

Hours: 1,651. 

Statutory Authority: 42 U.S.C. 13251 et 

seq. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on January 15, 

2010. 

Cathy Zoi, 

Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and 

Renewable Energy. 

[FR Doc. 2010–1687 Filed 1–26–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Energy Information Administration 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Request for Comments and 

Recommendations 

AGENCY: Energy Information 

Administration (EIA), Department of 

Energy (DOE). 

ACTION: Request for General Comments. 

SUMMARY: EIA is seeking general 

comments on matters described below 

in support of the Energy and Financial 

Markets Initiative announced on 

September 9, 2009. 

DATES: Comments from interested 

parties are requested to be received by 

close of business on March 29, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: Send comments to ensure 

receipt of the comments by the due date, 

submission, preferably as a Word 

attachment to an e-mail to 

(karen.robinson@eia.doe.gov), or by 

FAX (202–586–3873). The mailing 

address is Office of Oil and Gas, EI–40, 

Forrestal Building, U.S. Department of 

Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW., 

Washington, DC 20585. Alternatively, 

Karen R. Robinson may be contacted by 

telephone at (202) 586–2585. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be directed to Karen Robinson at 

the address listed above. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

II. Current Actions 

III. Request for Comments 

I. Background 

The U.S. Energy Information 

Administration (EIA) is the statistical 

and analytical agency within the U.S. 

Department of Energy. EIA collects, 

analyzes, and disseminates independent 

and impartial energy information to 

promote sound policymaking, efficient 

markets, and public understanding of 

energy and its interaction with the 

economy and the environment. EIA is 

the Nation’s premier source of energy 

information and, by law, its data, 

analyses, and forecasts are independent 

of approval by any other officer or 

employee of the United States 

Government. 

The Federal Energy Administration 

Act of 1974 as amended, specifically 15 

U.S.C. 790a, and the DOE Organization 

Act, specifically 42 U.S.C. 7135, require 

EIA to carry out a centralized, 

comprehensive, and unified energy 

information program. This program 

collects, evaluates, assembles, analyzes, 

and disseminates information on energy 

resource reserves, production, demand, 

technology, and related economic and 

statistical information. This information 

is used to assess the adequacy of energy 

resources to meet near and longer term 

domestic demands and to promote 

sound policymaking, efficient markets, 

and public understanding of energy and 

its interaction with the economy and the 

environment. 

The present notice focuses on 

information needed to support analysis 

and increased understanding of energy 

markets and does not itself propose any 

new information collection by EIA. The 

general comments received in response 

to this notice will be considered by the 

agency as it develops a plan of action to 

fill key information gaps. 

EIA evaluates its activities on an 

ongoing basis through a variety of 

formal and informal methods. EIA 

provides opportunities for interested 

parties to shape its functions and 

practices through its annual conference, 

joint meetings with the American 

Statistical Association, meetings with 

experts, and other outreach 

opportunities. EIA also tracks its 

website metrics and formal citations of 

its data and analyses to measure interest 

in the information it provides. 

The EIA Web site at http:// 

www.eia.gov is the principal method for 

dissemination of its energy industry 

information. One of the Web site pages, 

http://www.eia.doe.gov/bookshelf.html, 

provides a list of weekly, monthly and 

annual reports and special analyses, and 

another page, http://www.eia.doe.gov/ 

oss/forms.html, lists over 64 active data 

surveys and forms used to collect these 

data. During fiscal year 2009, EIA Web 

pages were viewed over 10 million 

times per month, reflecting both 

searches for information and cataloging 

of sites by search engines. A recent 

survey indicated that about half of EIA 

visitors are commercial, and many 

indicate that they use information from 

EIA and other Web sites to meet their 

needs. Many customers are regular users 

of EIA data; nearly half of the 

respondents to the survey indicated that 

they visited the Web site weekly or 

more frequently. 

In recent years, energy markets have 

developed in ways that were not 

anticipated in the original planning and 

evolution of EIA’s information program. 

In addition to the factors EIA has 

historically tracked, such as production, 

consumption, inventories, and spare 

capacity, moving forward, EIA is 

interested in assessing other market 

influences, such as speculation, 

hedging, investment, interest rates and 

exchange rates. On September 9, 2009, 

EIA announced an Energy and Financial 

Markets Initiative to improve EIA’s 

responsiveness, in particular, to energy 

market developments (http:// 

www.eia.doe.gov/neic/press/ 

press325.html). Proposed actions were 

announced in four main areas, 

including identification of critical 

information on factors affecting energy 

prices and analysis through in-depth 

studies of energy market behavior. Other 

efforts included coordination with other 

Federal agencies engaged in energy 

market information collection and 

analysis and outreach to solicit feedback 

from a broad range of experts on the 

interrelationship of energy and financial 

markets. 

In its September 2009 announcement, 

EIA pointed out that it already collects 

significant energy information, but that 

additional data would further improve 

market transparency. EIA has already 

proposed to expand its collection of 

commercial oil and refined products 

storage capacity data beginning in early 

2010. The Federal Register notice for 

this collection can be found at http:// 

edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9– 

26319.pdf. EIA has moved toward a 

broader analysis of market factors 

through a characterization of oil and 

natural gas market volatility in the 

Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). EIA 

now calculates an ‘‘implied volatility’’ 

for oil and natural gas futures prices 

using a generally accepted mathematical 

model, as described in the technical 

report accompanying the STEO entitled 

Energy Price Volatility and Forecast 

Uncertainty (at http://www.eia.doe.gov/ 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 27, 2010 / Notices 4361 

emeu/steo/pub/special/ 

2009_sp_05.html). This implied 

volatility is used to generate confidence 

intervals around futures prices, allowing 

readers to understand the degree of 

uncertainty surrounding current and 

future expected prices. 

II. Current Actions 

EIA is currently considering the state 

of its statistical data collecting and 

analysis activities, which include: 

• Identifying the best data for 

understanding relationships among 

physical inventories, energy prices, and 

market activity, as well as identifying 

what other data is important to better 

understand energy price movements. 

• Identifying what market data EIA 

might seek from other Federal agencies, 

including from the Commodity Futures 

Trading Commission (CFTC), and from 

other sources to analyze the influence of 

futures and related financial market 

activity on energy prices in the context 

of other energy market factors. 

• Providing a comprehensive 

assessment, over the next year, of 

remaining energy information gaps in 

physical and financial markets, and 

developing a strategy to fill them. 

EIA is not proposing specific changes 

in its data collection program in this 

notice. 

A. Energy Market Data Needs 

Recent energy price volatility and the 

international economic issues posed by 

recent financial institution distress have 

focused interest on the interrelations 

between physical energy markets and 

activities in futures and financial 

markets. Growth in trade of energy 

commodities has occurred not only on 

exchanges overseen by the CFTC, but 

increasingly in derivatives traded overthe-counter (OTC) and in energy-backed 

securities, neither of which have been 

historically overseen by the CFTC. 

During 2009, the CFTC held hearings on 

the effects of OTC trade in energy and 

other commodities, and Congress has 

considered proposals to change the 

organization and authorities for 

oversight of such markets. On January 

14, 2010, the CFTC approved a notice of 

proposed rulemaking that would 

establish additional position limits on 

certain energy markets. 

Unlike other Federal entities that 

currently collect market data, including 

the CFTC, the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the 

Securities and Exchange Commission 

(SEC), EIA is not a regulatory agency. 

EIA uses the energy information it 

collects exclusively for statistical 

purposes to understand and assess 

energy market conditions. EIA’s role in 

informing decision makers and the 

broader public regarding energy market 

developments could be strengthened by 

the availability of current and historical 

information about these related 

financial market practices. 

In support of the above, EIA is 

considering the following topics: 

• Identifying information associated 

with energy market behavior that is 

most needed to support analysis and 

increased understanding of energy 

markets; This might include: 

Æ Identifying all oil inventories and 

other physical oil assets, including all 

petroleum-based products and the 

storage of such products in offshore 

tankers, that are owned by the 50 largest 

traders of oil contracts including 

derivatives contracts; 

Æ Other physical market data; 

Æ Identifying information on energyrelated futures and options traded on 

exchanges; 

Æ Identifying information on behavior 

in the OTC market for physical delivery 

of energy commodities in spot and term 

markets; 

Æ Identifying information on behavior 

in the OTC market for financially-settled 

swaps, options and other energy 

derivatives; or 

Æ Other financial market data. 

• Determining the appropriate level 

of aggregation (ranging from transactionlevel data to highly aggregated data) and 

the appropriate data frequency. 

• To the extent historical information 

might be important for interpreting 

current market dynamics information, 

determining the historical time period 

EIA should consider in acquiring 

additional information. 

• Determining what would be a 

useful series of recurring data and 

analysis reports that EIA could produce. 

B. Energy Market Data Sources 

Given the public interest in assuring 

that EIA’s information collection 

activities do not impose an undue 

burden, EIA is presently considering 

whether and to what extent it can obtain 

data from other sources, including: 

• Other Federal entities that EIA 

should incorporate into its analyses of 

energy prices; 

• Non-governmental sources that 

could help EIA and its customers better 

understand, analyze and explain the 

effects of market behavior on energy 

prices without requiring additional 

survey data collection efforts; 

• Other Federal entities or other 

sources that EIA should collect to 

inform policymakers, market 

participants, and the public about 

energy market behavior and prices; and 

• Information-gathering methods that 

EIA should use to become informed of 

participants entering or leaving the 

market(s), in order to manage its survey 

samples. 

C. Timing and Frequency of Existing 

EIA Energy Data Releases 

EIA produces many weekly, monthly, 

and annual reports on energy marketing 

and operations. In each case, there are 

time lags between the ‘‘as of’’ date of the 

information and the publication of the 

reports. The delay arises from the time 

needed for data collection, verification 

of collected data, follow-up with 

respondents to make clarifications, 

imputation of missing data, generation 

of aggregate values from the survey 

sample, and analysis of aggregate data. 

The total time for any given report 

depends on the effort required to 

perform these tasks and to achieve data 

quality standards. 

EIA monitors and publishes 

information regarding adherence to its 

schedules, and has typically achieved a 

95 percent or better success rate against 

its schedule. However, a recent EIA 

customer survey indicated that some 

customers would appreciate 

acceleration of some releases. EIA is 

considering: 

• For energy information already 

being collected and disseminated, an 

acceleration or increased frequency of 

existing schedules; 

• Any consequences to changing time 

lags in the EIA dissemination process 

given the availability of information 

from other sources, some of which 

require paid subscriptions; and 

• Priorities for EIA in allocating 

limited resources among additional 

information, more frequent information, 

and more timely information. 

D. Specific Types of Crude Oil 

Recently, discussion of energy price 

behavior has raised several specific 

issues regarding the non-homogeneous 

nature of oil as a commodity. Different 

types of crude oil are produced in 

different geographical areas, have 

variations in chemical content, and are 

therefore sold at different prices. For 

example, the relative supply of crudes 

of different qualities can interact with 

existing refinery capacity, 

environmental regulations and refinery 

investment patterns to influence prices. 

When prices of major benchmark crude 

types, such as West Texas Intermediate 

(WTI), change, prices also change for 

other crudes and, in some cases, 

financial instruments linked to such 

benchmarks. 

EIA collects crude quality data in 

regard to import quantities and prices, 

but does not collect or analyze other 

aspects of the crude oil market in terms 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES
4362 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 27, 2010 / Notices 

of crude oil quality. Regarding 

acquisitions, Form EIA–856, ‘‘Monthly 

Foreign Crude Oil Acquisition Report,’’ 

seeks the FOB, landed costs and other 

features of crude oil acquisition, 

including crude oil type and quality. 

Firms importing 500,000 barrels or more 

in a reporting month are asked to 

identify the generic crude oil quality 

stream for each purchase, selecting from 

a list of several hundred options. (See 

Appendix A at http://www.eia.doe.gov/ 

pub/oil_gas/petroleum/survey_forms/ 

eia856i.pdf.) In addition, importers are 

asked to provide the API gravity of 

specific shipments. Current EIA reports 

derived from this information are 

typically limited to aggregations by 

country of origin and average prices for 

different levels of API gravity. 

Customers of EIA analyses might 

benefit from a more detailed treatment 

of crude quality differentials as a factor 

affecting market dynamics. EIA is 

therefore considering what, if any, 

additional types of information it 

should collect, analyze, and disseminate 

on the pricing, landed costs, inventory, 

and supply levels of different types of 

crude oil. 

III. Request for General Comments 

General comments submitted in 

response to this notice will be 

considered and utilized to develop a 

plan of action. 

Statutory Authority: Section 52(a) of the 

Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 as 

amended, Public Law 94–385, codified at 15 

U.S.C. 790a. 

Issued in Washington, DC, January 20, 

2010. 

Howard K. Gruenspecht, 

Deputy Administrator, Energy Information 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2010–1663 Filed 1–26–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Project No. 13–023] 

Green Island Power Authority; Notice 

of Application Ready for 

Environmental Analysis, and Soliciting 

Comments, Recommendations, 

Preliminary Terms and Conditions, and 

Preliminary Fishway Prescriptions 

January 20, 2010. 

Take notice that the following 

hydroelectric application has been filed 

with the Commission and is available 

for public inspection. 

a. Type of Application: New Major 

License. 

b. Project No.: 13–023. 

c. Date Filed: March 2, 2009. 

d. Applicant: Green Island Power 

Authority. 

e. Name of Project: Green Island 

Hydroelectric Project. 

f. Location: The existing project is 

located on the Hudson River in Albany 

County, New York. The project would 

occupy Federal land managed by the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power 

Act 16 U.S.C. 791(a)–825(r). 

h. Agent Contact: James A. Besha, 

President, Albany Engineering 

Corporation, 5 Washington Square, 

Albany, NY 12205; (518) 456–7712. 

i. FERC Contact: Tom Dean, (202) 

502–6041. 

j. The deadline for filing comments, 

recommendations, preliminary terms 

and conditions, and preliminary 

fishway prescriptions is 60 days from 

the issuance of this notice; reply 

comments are due 105 days from the 

issuance date of this notice. 

All documents (original and eight 

copies) should be filed with: Kimberly 

D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 888 First 

Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426. 

The Commission’s Rules of Practice 

require all intervenors filing documents 

with the Commission to serve a copy of 

that document on each person on the 

official service list for the project. 

Further, if an intervenor files comments 

or documents with the Commission 

relating to the merits of an issue that 

may affect the responsibilities of a 

particular resource agency, they must 

also serve a copy of the document on 

that resource agency. 

Comments, recommendations, 

preliminary terms and conditions, and 

preliminary fishway prescriptions may 

be filed electronically via the Internet in 

lieu of paper. The Commission strongly 

encourages electronic filings. See 18 

CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the 

instructions on the Commission’s Web 

site (http://www.ferc.gov) under the 

‘‘eFiling’’ link. For a simpler method of 

submitting text-only comments, click on 

‘‘Quick Comment.’’ 

k. This application has been accepted 

for filing and is ready for environmental 

analysis. 

l. Project Description: The existing 

Green Island Project utilizes the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Green 

Island-Troy lock and dam that consists 

of: (1) A dam with a main spillway with 

a fixed crest elevation of 14.33 feet 

mean sea level (msl); (2) an auxiliary 

spillway with a crest elevation of 16.33 

feet msl; and (3) a 520-foot-long, 45-footwide lock. 

The Green Island Project consists of: 

(1) 2-foot-high pneumatic flashboards 

along the top of the main spillway with 

a crest elevation of 16.33 feet msl; (2) a 

700-acre impoundment with a normal 

water surface elevation of 16.33 feet 

msl; (3) a bulkhead and forebay 

structure located downstream and at the 

west end of the Corps dam; (4) a 

powerhouse containing four 1.5 

megawatt (MW) generating units with a 

total installed capacity of 6.0 MW; (5) a 

34.5-kilovolt (kV) underground 

transmission cable; and (6) appurtenant 

facilities. 

Green Island Power Authority 

proposes to: (1) Lower the existing main 

spillway to a crest elevation of 12.5 feet 

msl, and install new hydraulically 

operated crest gates with a maximum 

crest gate elevation of 18.5 feet msl; (2) 

increase the auxiliary spillway elevation 

to 18.4 feet msl; (3) raise the 

impoundment elevation to 18.4 feet msl 

and increase the impoundment size to 

708 acres; (4) install a new trash boom 

extending across and upstream of the 

forebay; (5) expand the existing 

powerhouse to the east and west and 

install four new 6.0 MW generating 

units, and replace the four existing 

generating units with four new 6.0 MW 

generating units with a total installed 

capacity of 48 MW; and (6) install a new 

13.8-kV, 70-foot-long transmission line. 

On January 15, 2010, Green Island 

Power Authority filed a resourcespecific settlement agreement signed by 

it and the National Marine Fisheries 

Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

and the New York State Department of 

Environmental Conservation. Under the 

settlement agreement, Green Island 

Power Authority would: (1) Construct 

two new Denil fish ladders for upstream 

passage; (2) construct a new fish 

exclusion screen and downstream fish 

passage facility; (3) construct three new 

eel ladders for upstream passage; and (4) 

develop plans for fishway effectiveness 

testing and monitoring, shortnose 

sturgeon monitoring and mitigation, and 

water quality and streamflow 

monitoring. 

m. A copy of the application and 

settlement agreement are available for 

review at the Commission in the Public 

Reference Room or may be viewed on 

the Commission’s Web site at http:// 

www.ferc.gov using the ‘‘eLibrary’’ link. 

Enter the docket number excluding the 

last three digits in the docket number 

field to access the document. For 

assistance, contact FERC Online 

Support at 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov or tollfree at 1–866–208–3676, or for TTY, 

(202) 502–8659. A copy is also available 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with NOTICES