Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 5 / Monday, January 8, 2018 / Notices 805 

Scoping Meetings 

Commission staff will hold two 

scoping meetings in the vicinity of the 

project at the times and places noted 

below. The daytime meeting will focus 

on resource agency, Indian tribes, and 

non-governmental organization 

concerns, while the evening meeting is 

primarily for receiving input from the 

public. We invite all interested 

individuals, organizations, and agencies 

to attend one or both of the meetings, 

and to assist staff in identifying 

particular study needs, as well as the 

scope of environmental issues to be 

addressed in the environmental 

document. The times and locations of 

these meetings are as follows: 

Evening Scoping Meeting 

Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2018. 

Time: 6:00 p.m. (EST). 

Location: Capitol Plaza Hotel and 

Conference Center, 100 State Street, 

Montpelier, VT 05602. 

Phone: (802) 223–5252. 

Daytime Scoping Meeting 

Date: Thursday, January 25, 2018. 

Time: 9:00 a.m. (EST). 

Location: Capitol Plaza Hotel and 

Conference Center, 100 State Street, 

Montpelier, VT 05602. 

Phone: (802) 223–5252. 

Scoping Document 1 (SD1), which 

outlines the subject areas to be 

addressed in the environmental 

document, was mailed to the 

individuals and entities on the 

Commission’s mailing list. Copies of 

SD1 will be available at the scoping 

meetings, or may be viewed on the web 

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

eLibrary link. Follow the directions for 

accessing information in paragraph n. 

Based on all oral and written comments, 

a Scoping Document 2 (SD2) may be 

issued. SD2 may include a revised 

process plan and schedule, as well as a 

list of issues, identified through the 

scoping process. 

Environmental Site Review 

The potential applicant and 

Commission staff will conduct an 

Environmental Site Review (site visit) of 

the project on Wednesday, January 24, 

2018, starting at 1:00 p.m. and ending at 

or about 3:00 p.m. All participants 

should meet at the base of Wrightsville 

Dam near the intersection of Mill Road 

and Corry Road in Montpelier, Vermont 

05602. Participants are responsible for 

their own transportation. Persons with 

questions about the site visit should 

contact Dan Weston (802–223–5245; 

dan.weston@wec.coop) or Mark Wamser 

(603–428–4960; mwamser@

gomezandsullivan.com). 

Meeting Objectives 

At the scoping meetings, staff will: (1) 

Initiate scoping of the issues; (2) review 

and discuss existing conditions and 

resource management objectives; (3) 

review and discuss existing information 

and identify preliminary information 

and study needs; (4) review and discuss 

the process plan and schedule for prefiling activity that incorporates the time 

frames provided for in Part 5 of the 

Commission’s regulations and, to the 

extent possible, maximizes coordination 

of federal, state, and tribal permitting 

and certification processes; and (5) 

discuss the appropriateness of any 

federal or state agency or Indian tribe 

acting as a cooperating agency for 

development of an environmental 

document. 

Meeting participants should come 

prepared to discuss their issues and/or 

concerns. Please review the PAD in 

preparation for the scoping meetings. 

Directions on how to obtain a copy of 

the PAD and SD1 are included in item 

n. of this document. 

Meeting Procedures 

The meetings will be recorded by a 

stenographer and will be placed in the 

public records of the project. 

Dated: December 29, 2017. 

Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr., 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–00127 Filed 1–5–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. CP18–12–000] 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Assessment for the 

Natural Gas Pipeline Company of 

America LLC Proposed Herscher 

Northwest Storage Field Abandonment 

Project and Request for Comments on 

Environmental Issues 

The staff of the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission (FERC or 

Commission) will prepare an 

environmental assessment (EA) that will 

discuss the environmental impacts of 

the Herscher Northwest Storage Field 

Abandonment Project involving 

construction and operation of facilities 

by Natural Gas Pipeline Company of 

America LLC (Natural) in Kankakee 

County, Illinois. The Commission will 

use this EA in its decision-making 

process to determine whether the 

project is in the public convenience and 

necessity. 

This notice announces the opening of 

the scoping process the Commission 

will use to gather input from the public 

and interested agencies on the project. 

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. Your 

input will help the Commission staff 

determine what issues they need to 

evaluate in the EA. 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 February 

1, 2018. 

If you sent comments on this project 

to the Commission before the opening of 

this docket on October 31, 2017, you 

will need to file those comments in 

Docket No. CP18–12–000 to ensure they 

are considered as part of this 

proceeding. 

This notice is being sent to the 

Commission’s current environmental 

mailing list for this project. State and 

local government representatives should 

notify their constituents of this 

proposed project and encourage them to 

comment on their areas of concern. 

Natural Gas Pipeline Company of 

America LLC provided landowners with 

a fact sheet prepared by the FERC 

entitled ‘‘An Interstate Natural Gas 

Facility On My Land? What Do I Need 

To Know?’’ This fact sheet addresses a 

number of typically asked questions, 

including the use of eminent domain 

and how to participate in the 

Commission’s proceedings. It is also 

available for viewing on the FERC 

website (www.ferc.gov). 

Public Participation 

For your convenience, there are three 

methods you can use to submit your 

comments to the Commission. The 

Commission encourages electronic filing 

of comments and has expert staff 

available to assist you at (202) 502–8258 

or FercOnlineSupport@ferc.gov. Please 

carefully follow these instructions so 

that your comments are properly 

recorded. 

(1) You can file your comments 

electronically using the eComment 

feature on the Commission’s website 

(www.ferc.gov) under the link to 

Documents and Filings. This is an easy 

method for submitting brief, text-only 

comments on a project; 

(2) You can file your comments 

electronically by using the eFiling 

feature on the Commission’s website 

(www.ferc.gov) under the link to 

Documents and Filings. With eFiling, 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
806 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 5 / Monday, January 8, 2018 / Notices 

1The appendices referenced in this notice will 

not appear 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. 

2We, us, and our refer to the environmental staff 

of the Commission’s Office of Energy Projects. 

3The Council on Environmental Quality 

regulations addressing cooperating agency 

responsibilities are at Title 40, Code of Federal 

Regulations, Part 1501.6. 

4The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s 

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 

of Historic Places. 

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.’’ If you are filing 

a comment on a particular project, 

please select ‘‘Comment on a Filing’’ as 

the filing type; or 

(3) You can file a paper copy of your 

comments by mailing them to the 

following address. Be sure to reference 

the project docket number (C18–12–000) 

with your submission: Kimberly D. 

Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street 

NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. 

Summary of the Proposed Project 

Natural proposes to abandon the 

Herscher Northwest Storage Field with 

its certificated maximum inventory of 

18.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) located in 

Kankakee County, Illinois. Natural 

concludes that in light of the marginal 

well performance over the years, 

geologic uncertainty, and new Pipeline 

and Hazardous Materials Safety 

Administration Regulations, it is no 

longer practicable to operate the storage 

field. 

Natural proposes to abandon: 

• In place 19 injection/withdrawal 

wells by permanently plugging and 

capping; 

• In place 16.15 miles of 4- to 16- 

inch-diameter associated pipeline 

laterals in the storage field by grouting 

and capping; 

• in place 13 non-jurisdictional 

observation wells by plugging; 

• in place one non-jurisdictional salt 

water disposal well by plugging; 

• in place approximately 15.3 Bcf of 

non-recoverable cushion gas; 

• by removal the 330-horsepower 

Compressor Station 202 including its 

building, compressor unit, concrete 

piers and concrete foundation; and 

• by removal all storage field 

auxiliary surface facilities including, but 

not limited to, aboveground well head 

piping, slug catchers, the water 

gathering system and methanol 

distribution systems, corrosion 

monitors, rectifiers and ground beds. 

Natural requests certification by May, 

2018, and expects to perform its 

abandonment activities over a four-year 

period (2018–2021). 

The general location of the project 

facilities is shown in appendix 1.1

Land Requirements for Construction 

Natural would limit is construction 

activities to 54 acres of its existing 

rights-of-way and would restore all 

workspace to pre-abandonment 

conditions. Approximately 14 acres 

would be retained as permanent 

easements to permit Natural to maintain 

the abandoned facilities. 

The EA 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 the issuance of a 

Certificate of Public Convenience and 

Necessity. 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 EA on the 

important environmental issues. By this 

notice, the Commission requests public 

comments on the scope of the issues to 

address in the EA. We will consider all 

filed comments during the preparation 

of the EA. 

In the EA we will discuss impacts that 

could occur as a result of the 

construction and operation of the 

proposed project under these general 

headings: 

• Geology and soils; 

• land use; 

• water resources, fisheries, and 

wetlands; 

• cultural resources; 

• vegetation and wildlife; 

• air quality and noise; 

• endangered and threatened species; 

• public safety; and 

• cumulative impacts. 

We will also evaluate reasonable 

alternatives to the proposed project or 

portions of the project, and make 

recommendations on how to lessen or 

avoid impacts on the various resource 

areas. 

The EA will present our independent 

analysis of the issues. The EA will be 

available in the public record through 

eLibrary. Depending on the comments 

received during the scoping process, we 

may also publish and distribute the EA 

to the public for an allotted comment 

period. We will consider all comments 

on the EA before making our 

recommendations to the Commission. 

To ensure we have the opportunity to 

consider and address your comments, 

please carefully follow the instructions 

in the Public Participation section, 

beginning on page 2. 

With this notice, we are asking 

agencies with jurisdiction by law and/ 

or special expertise with respect to the 

environmental issues of this project to 

formally cooperate with us in the 

preparation of the EA.3 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. 

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 

applicable State Historic Preservation 

Office (SHPO), and to solicit their views 

and those of other government agencies, 

interested Indian tribes, and the public 

on the project’s potential effects on 

historic properties.4 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 (examples include 

construction right-of-way, contractor/ 

pipe storage yards, compressor stations, 

and access roads). Our EA for this 

project will document our findings on 

the impacts on historic properties and 

summarize the status of consultations 

under section 106. 

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 

all 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 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 5 / Monday, January 8, 2018 / Notices 807 

send the information related to this 

environmental review to all individuals, 

organizations, and government entities 

interested in and/or potentially affected 

by the proposed project. 

If we publish and distribute the EA, 

copies of the EA will be sent to the 

environmental mailing list for public 

review and comment. 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). 

Becoming an Intervenor 

In addition to involvement in the EA 

scoping process, 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 Document-less 

Intervention Guide under the e-filing 

link on the Commission’s website. 

Motions to intervene are more fully 

described at http://www.ferc.gov/ 

resources/guides/how-to/intervene.asp. 

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 

website at 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., 

CP18–12–000). 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/docsfiling/esubscription.asp. 

Finally, public sessions 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: January 2, 2018. 

Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–00089 Filed 1–5–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE 

CORPORATION 

Proposed Statement of Policy for 

Participation in the Conduct of the 

Affairs of an Insured Depository 

Institution by Persons Who Have Been 

Convicted or Have Entered a Pretrial 

Diversion or Similar Program for 

Certain Offenses Pursuant to Section 

19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance 

Act 

AGENCY: Federal Deposit Insurance 

Corporation (FDIC). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The FDIC seeks to update its 

Statement of Policy (SOP), which is 

issued pursuant to Section 19 of the 

Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDI Act) 

(Section 19). Section 19 prohibits, 

without the prior written consent of the 

FDIC, any person from participating in 

banking who has been convicted of a 

crime of dishonesty or breach of trust or 

money laundering, or who has entered 

a pretrial diversion or similar program 

in connection with the prosecution for 

such an offense. 

Based upon its experience with the 

application of the SOP since 1998, the 

FDIC is now proposing to revise and 

issue an updated SOP and rescind the 

current SOP, and is seeking comments 

on the proposed revisions by issuing 

this Federal Register Notice. Notably, in 

addition to minor format and technical 

changes, as well as clarifying changes, 

the FDIC is proposing to expand its 

current de minimis exception to 

encompass insufficient funds checks of 

aggregate moderate value; small dollar, 

simple theft; and isolated, minor 

offenses committed by young adults. 

These carefully measured changes are 

intended to reduce regulatory burden by 

decreasing the number of covered 

offenses that will require an application, 

while ensuring that insured institutions 

are not subject to risk by convicted 

persons. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before March 9, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by Section 19, by any of the 

following methods: 

• Agency website: https://

www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/federal/. 

Follow instructions for submitting 

comments on the Agency website. 

• Email: Comments@fdic.gov. Include 

Section 19 on the subject line of the 

message. 

• Mail: Robert E. Feldman, Executive 

Secretary, Attention: Comments, Federal 

Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th 

Street NW, Washington, DC 20429. 

• Hand Delivery: Comments may be 

hand delivered to the guard station at 

the rear of the 550 17th Street Building 

(located on F Street) on business days 

between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. 

Public Inspection: All comments 

received will be posted without change 

to https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/ 

laws/federal/, including any personal 

information provided. Paper copies of 

public comments may be ordered from 

the FDIC Public Information Center, 

3501 North Fairfax Drive, Room E–1002, 

Arlington, VA 22226 by telephone at 

(877) 275–3342 or (703) 562–2200. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Brian Zeller, Review Examiner, (319) 

395–7394 x4125, or Larisa Collado, 

Section Chief, (202) 898–8509, in the 

Division of Risk Management 

Supervision; or Michael P. Condon, 

Counsel, (202) 898–6536, or Andrea 

Winkler, Supervisory Counsel, (202) 

898–3727 in the Legal Division. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

Section 19 of the FDI Act (12 U.S.C. 

1829) prohibits, without the prior 

written consent of the FDIC, a person 

convicted of any criminal offense 

involving dishonesty or breach of trust 

or money laundering (covered offenses), 

or who has agreed to enter into a pretrial 

diversion or similar program in 

connection with a prosecution for such 

offense, from becoming or continuing as 

an institution-affiliated party (IAP), 

owning or controlling, directly or 

indirectly an insured depository 

institution (insured institution), or 

otherwise participating, directly or 

indirectly, in the conduct of the affairs 

of an insured institution. Further, the 

law forbids an insured institution from 

permitting such a person to engage in 

any conduct or to continue any 

relationship prohibited by Section 19. It 

also imposes a ten-year ban against the 

FDIC’s consent for a person convicted of 

certain crimes enumerated in Title 18 of 

the United States Code, absent a motion 

by the FDIC and approval by the 

sentencing court. 

The FDIC issued, after notice and 

comment, the current SOP for Section 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES