Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 200 / Wednesday, October 15, 2008 / Notices 61101 

meeting; reasonable provision will be 

made to include requested topic(s) on 

the agenda. The Chair of the Board is 

empowered to conduct the meeting in a 

fashion that will facilitate the orderly 

conduct of business. 

Minutes: The minutes of the meeting 

will be available for public review and 

copying within 60 days on the STEAB 

Web site, http://www.steab.org. 

Issued at Washington, DC, on October 8, 

2008. 

Rachel Samuel, 

Deputy Committee Management Officer. 

[FR Doc. E8–24396 Filed 10–14–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Energy Information Administration 

Solicitation of Comments on the 

Process and Technologies Used for 

Disseminating the Weekly Petroelum 

Status Report and the Weekly Natural 

Gas Storage Report 

AGENCY: Energy Information 

Administration (EIA), Department of 

Energy (DOE). 

ACTION: Solicitation of comments on the 

process and technologies used for 

disseminating the Weekly Petroleum 

Status Report and the Weekly Natural 

Gas Storage Report. 

SUMMARY: The EIA is requesting 

comments on the process and 

technologies used for disseminating 

weekly information regarding petroleum 

and natural gas stocks in the Weekly 

Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) and 

the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report 

(WNGSR). EIA has attempted to develop 

its current dissemination processes and 

information technologies to meet its 

goal of providing fair access to any 

interested user, but has recently faced 

significant challenges in this area that 

may require changes in the process and/ 

or technologies used for disseminating 

weekly data. This request is based on 

EIA’s mandate for carrying out a central, 

comprehensive and unified energy data 

and information program responsive to 

users’ needs for credible, reliable and 

timely energy information that will 

improve and broaden understanding of 

petroleum and natural gas supply in the 

United States. 

DATES: Comments must be filed by 

November 14, 2008. If you anticipate 

difficulty in submitting comments 

within that period, contact the person 

listed below as soon as possible. 

ADDRESSES: Comments should be 

directed to Karen Robinson, Office of 

Oil and Gas. To ensure receipt of the 

comments by the due date, submission 

by FAX (202–586–9739) or e-mail 

(karen.robinson@eia.doe.gov) is 

recommended. The mailing address is 

Office of Oil and Gas, Energy 

Information Administration, EI–40, 

Forrestal Building, U.S. Department of 

Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW., 

Washington, DC 20585. Alternatively, 

Karen Robinson may be contacted by 

telephone at (202) 586–2585. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be directed to Karen Robinson as 

listed above. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

II. Issues with Dissemination of Weekly 

Reports 

III. Request for Comments 

I. Background 

Every week, the EIA’s Office of Oil 

and Gas releases two reports, one on the 

previous week’s U.S. petroleum supply 

and disposition and one on natural gas 

storage inventories. Together, these 

reports provide the industry, press, 

planners, policymakers, consumers, 

analysts, and State and local 

governments with a ready, reliable 

source of current information about 

petroleum and natural gas. 

The WPSR has provided timely 

information on supply and disposition 

of crude oil and principal petroleum 

products since April 1979. The WPSR 

was initiated to increase available 

information during a period of gasoline 

shortages arising from the repercussions 

of the revolution in Iran. The WPSR 

describes the supply and disposition of 

crude oil and petroleum products in the 

United States in major U.S. regions 

called Petroleum Administration for 

Defense Districts. The weekly data are 

used as preliminary estimates for the 

Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) and 

the Monthly Energy Review (MER). 

While more accurate and detailed data 

are presented in the PSM based on 

monthly surveys, those surveys do not 

capture sudden or rapid changes in 

petroleum market conditions nor do 

they provide data that are timely enough 

to be useful in a shortfall situation. 

The WNGSR has provided weekly 

estimates of working natural gas 

volumes held in underground storage 

facilities at the national and regional 

levels since May 2002. Weekly estimates 

of working natural gas in storage were 

first provided by the American Gas 

Association (AGA) starting in 1994. EIA 

picked up the report when the AGA 

announced that it would discontinue its 

survey. The WNGSR relies on weekly 

survey data from a sample of operators 

of underground storage facilities. These 

data are used to prepare regional and 

national estimates for all underground 

storage. In September 2007 the WNGSR 

was designated by the Office of 

Management and Budget as DOE’s first 

Principal Federal Economic Indicator. 

Over time, interest in both the WPSR 

and the WNGSR has increased. Weekly 

WPSR and WNGSR results are routinely 

predicted by analysts, and deviations 

from analysts’ expectations are often 

cited as moving futures markets in 

petroleum and natural gas. 

As one part of its response to a 

problem that arose in the release of 

WPSR data on May 29, 2008, press 

releases issued on May 29, 2008 and 

June 2, 2008, announced EIA’s intention 

to open a dialogue to discuss the 

technical and process challenges facing 

EIA in this area with users interested in 

accessing weekly data, including the 

press, trading organizations and other 

parties. This Federal Register notice 

initiates that dialogue. Following the 

exchange of information with 

stakeholders, EIA will develop a 

specific proposal for a comprehensive 

release process that is both fair and 

takes account of changing technologies 

and post that proposal in the Federal 

Register for comment. After considering 

comments, EIA will decide on and 

publicly announce its revised 

comprehensive release process before 

any changes are implemented. 

II. Issues With Dissemination of Weekly 

Reports 

EIA’s interest is in providing fair 

access to any interested user, regardless 

of the nature of their interest, whether 

that interest is commercial, journalistic, 

academic, policy or general interest. 

EIA’s dissemination process and 

information technologies attempt to 

meet that goal. 

EIA’s current practice is to load the 

WPSR and WNGSR on its Web site prior 

to the scheduled release time, behind a 

software ‘‘gate’’ that prevents access to 

the reports before the release time. At 

the release time, the gate is removed, 

and interested parties have access to the 

information. 

Because oil and natural gas market 

participants respond extremely quickly 

to the information, the commercial 

value of the information is high but 

decays extremely quickly. The use of 

automated retrieval programs known as 

‘‘robots’’ to access online data in 

combination with the ability to program 

trading based on data received by robots 

through electronic interfaces in oil and 

natural gas commodities markets (both 

futures and over-the-counter swaps) 

creates a situation where small time 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
61102 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 200 / Wednesday, October 15, 2008 / Notices 

differences in access to this information 

can have commercial implications. 

Consistent with the intense 

immediate interest and the quick decay 

in the commercial value of the 

information, demand on EIA servers 

increases significantly over just a few 

seconds around release times. For 

example, during the first half of 2008, 

attempts to access the Web site for the 

WPSR at about the time of release rose 

from fewer than 100 hits per second to 

a typical peak between 1,000 and 5,000 

hits per second. One hour before or after 

the release, hits per second are at much 

lower levels. The immediate reason for 

the surge in hits on the EIA web site is 

the more active use of robots. In EIA’s 

experience, although most robots have 

not performed at excessive levels, some 

robots have been designed to submit 

requests so rapidly that their load has 

reduced overall server performance and 

impaired access to others. 

EIA has attempted to manage this 

weekly demand for WPSR data and, to 

a lesser degree, the WNGSR, through the 

application of a new process and 

technologies designed to meet the goal 

of providing fair access to any interested 

user. However, in a Web environment, 

strategies used by EIA’s customers 

evolve constantly, requiring continuous 

refinement of EIA’s process and 

information technologies to meet its 

goal of providing all EIA customers with 

fair access to our data. Two recent 

experiences illustrate the challenges 

faced by EIA in this area. 

On May 29, 2008, petroleum data 

published in the WPSR for the week 

ending May 23, 2008, was briefly made 

available on the public EIA Web site 

prior to its scheduled release time of 

10:30 a.m. (Eastern Time) due to a 

combination of procedural and 

information technology errors involving 

the process and technologies deployed 

in response to the rise in robot activity. 

EIA reviewed what happened on May 

29, 2008, and took significant actions to 

stabilize its systems and strengthen its 

processes. In a press release on the day 

of the incident, EIA provided 

information on initial indications of the 

problem and stated that interim changes 

necessary to avoid a recurrence would 

be made available no later than June 2, 

2008, two days ahead of the next 

scheduled weekly data release. The May 

29, 2008, press release and another one 

issued on June 2, 2008, announced 

EIA’s intention to open a dialogue with 

customers on the process and 

technologies for dissemination of the 

weekly data. The June 2, 2008, press 

release also outlined the following 

interim changes: 

1. Temporary process changes, 

including a delay in WNGSR and WPSR 

data releases until 10:35 a.m., to assure 

the inaccessibility of data; 

2. Release of WNGSR and WPSR 30 

minutes apart when releases are 

scheduled to occur on the same day 

during weeks with a Federal holiday on 

a Monday; 

3. Immediate implementation of a 

policy to block robots that are accessing 

the Web site in any way that EIA 

considers excessive or malicious or that 

do not contain contact or identifying 

information; and, 

4. A reminder that EIA may report 

robot activity in accordance with its 

Security Policy, which could result in 

criminal prosecution under the 

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 

and the National Information 

Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 

(Pub. L. 104–294), (18 U.S.C. 1030), or 

other applicable criminal laws. 

Internally, EIA thoroughly tested its 

software, both in regular operations and 

under stressed conditions, and 

eliminated all identified problems. EIA 

also has revised its process, increasing 

the communication across EIA staff 

before and during release to identify 

potential issues, proactively develop 

actions to minimize risk and assure that 

all employees act in accordance with 

written procedures. 

EIA’s actions have materially reduced 

the likelihood of a repeated early release 

of the WPSR, but stress on the process 

and systems remains due to the 

increasing level of interest in the WPSR 

and WNGSR at release time. EIA’s 

interim actions were primarily designed 

to stabilize and improve its process and 

system. In addition, the actions did 

remind those accessing WPSR and 

WNGSR data that EIA policy permitted 

more active EIA responses to manage 

certain types of behaviors. 

The most aggressive activity did 

subside for some time after the May 29, 

2008, incident and the issuance of the 

May 29, 2008, and June 2, 2008, press 

releases. More recently, however, the 

most aggressive visitors have increased 

their activity significantly. For example, 

on September 10, 2008, some parties 

attempting to reach the WPSR faced 

delays in access until after the release 

time directly because of the aggressive 

behavior of others. On that day, robots 

launched from several IP addresses 

impeded access to EIA’s servers for 

several seconds by repeatedly 

downloading the same WPSR data— 

hundreds or thousands of times— 

without relinquishing their connections. 

This activity impaired other users’ 

access to the data. 

EIA is continuing to explore 

technological alternatives to permit it to 

achieve its goal of providing fair access 

to WPSR and WNGSR data as close to 

simultaneously as possible to any 

interested user, regardless of the nature 

of their interest, whether it is 

commercial, journalistic, academic, 

policy or general interest. Since 

September 10, 2008, EIA has more 

actively blocked robots from IP 

addresses with prior patterns of 

excessive attempts to download 

information. EIA is developing the 

ability to block real-time activity beyond 

predetermined thresholds. And, as 

indicated above, EIA has asserted its 

intent to report robot activity in 

accordance with its Security Policy, 

which could result in criminal 

prosecution under the Computer Fraud 

and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National 

Information Infrastructure Protection 

Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104–294), (18 

U.S.C. 1030), or other applicable 

criminal laws. 

The technical requirements to manage 

increasingly aggressive behavior by 

apparently increasing numbers of 

interested parties in a highly 

technological environment are 

extraordinary. The complexity is 

increased at the same time by EIA’s and 

DOE’s needs to manage cyber security in 

a Governmental context of tight budgets 

and very fast change. In some ways, the 

problem may be without precedent—the 

functional equivalent, whether intended 

or not, of a prescheduled denial-ofservice attack twice a week. Incremental 

technology and process solutions may 

not be enough to assure that fair access 

to WPSR and WNGSR data is available 

to all interested users. 

III. Request for Comments 

EIA is asking for public comment on 

the issues discussed in item II. In 

particular, EIA is seeking public 

comments on the following questions: 

A. EIA’s interest is in providing fair 

access to any interested user, regardless 

of the nature of their interest, whether 

that interest is commercial, journalistic, 

academic, policy or general interest. EIA 

has attempted to develop its 

dissemination process and information 

technologies to meet that goal. 

1. EIA releases information it collects 

in the normal course of its business. 

Release of that information is for the 

public good, rather than for any 

particular commercial reason. The 

commercial value of the information to 

users underscores its importance, but is 

entirely outside of EIA’s mandate. Other 

than protecting its own information 

technology infrastructure, should EIA be 

concerned over the accessibility of the 


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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 200 / Wednesday, October 15, 2008 / Notices 61103 

information it disseminates on its Web 

site if some users experience delays in 

accessing the weekly data? 

2. Disseminating information 

simultaneously over the web is not 

physically possible. Servers process 

information sequentially and 

communication connections to servers 

have physical limitations that mean, in 

absolute terms, the information does not 

move ‘‘simultaneously.’’ However, very 

small time differences may not be 

material. In the case of release of the 

WPSR and WNGSR, do minor delays 

involving one to fifty seconds in 

accessing information undermine EIA’s 

policy to promote fair access in 

operational terms? 

3. The value of WPSR and WNGSR 

information varies for different 

customers. With the development of 

electronic trading in oil and natural gas 

commodities—both futures and swaps— 

the ability to use software ‘‘robots’’ to 

access online data and the ability to 

automate trading based on data received 

by robots through electronic interfaces, 

a time difference in access to this 

information on the order of even a 

second or two could have implications 

for commercial users. Journalists and 

possibly certain consultants will want to 

communicate this information to 

commercial users as well, and very 

short-period access differences matter 

for these data users as well. Those with 

academic, policy or general interests 

may not need this information within 

seconds of its release. Should EIA 

consider possible technological 

solutions to provide access to this 

information on different time frames? 

Would treating different types of 

customers differently be a problem? If 

so, why and how? 

4. A registration system could permit 

registered customers to have the most 

immediate access to data in exchange 

for contact information and an 

agreement to access information using 

procedures and methods that do not put 

other customers at risk for delayed 

access. Should EIA require registration 

for customers needing immediate access 

to this data and what guidelines would 

be reasonable for users to follow? 

B. EIA’s current practice is to load the 

WPSR and WNGSR on its Web site prior 

to the scheduled release time, behind a 

software ‘‘gate’’ that prevents access to 

the reports before the release time. At 

the release time, the gate is removed, 

and interested parties have access to the 

information. Currently, the releases 

occur at times when trading of energy 

futures on the New York Mercantile 

Exchange is open. 

1. Is a web release of information the 

best way to disseminate that 

information? Are there alternatives that 

would be more effective? For example, 

are there reliable ‘‘push’’ technologies 

that could come closer to simultaneous 

access—ways for EIA to send the 

information to interested parties rather 

than simply posting it? 

2. Are there particular technologies 

that EIA should be considering to (a) 

manage the brief, extraordinarily high 

loads associated with the WPSR and 

WNGSR releases, (b) block aggressive 

behaviors reducing service quality to 

others (inadvertently or intentionally), 

and (c) protect data after it is loaded 

onto the servers and before its release? 

Technologies could include software 

solutions, hardware and hardware 

configurations, etc. 

3. Should EIA consider moving the 

release times for the WPSR and 

WNGSR? Most other economic and 

commodity data is released either before 

or after major U.S. stock and commodity 

exchanges are open. With the advent of 

electronic trading, NYMEX regularly 

trades petroleum and natural gas futures 

from 6 p.m. to the next day at 5:15 p.m. 

every day except Saturday afternoon 

into Sunday. This schedule typically 

leaves only a 45-minute window when 

trades do not take place during the work 

week. Online trading in over-thecounter swaps effectively takes place 

continuously. Are there times for release 

of the WPSR and WNGSR that better 

align with trading activity? 

C. EIA has more actively blocked 

robots from IP addresses with prior 

patterns of extremely aggressive 

behavior. EIA is developing the ability 

to block activity by robots beyond predetermined thresholds. 

1. Should EIA consider banning use of 

robots to access this data? 

2. Should EIA continue to block 

robots based on their level of activity? 

If so, what criteria should EIA use to 

block them? Historical behavior? Realtime behavior? 

3. Could EIA develop and distribute a 

standard robot designed to regulate 

traffic by managing how hard it hit the 

EIA Web site, allowing for blocking of 

non-standard designs and possibly 

identifying users to allow for more 

effective follow-up? 

D. EIA has asserted its intent to report 

robot activity in accordance with its 

Security Policy, which could result in 

criminal prosecution under the 

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 

and the National Information 

Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 

(Pub. L. 104–294), (18 U.S.C. 1030), or 

other applicable criminal laws. At what 

point does tying-up access to EIA’s 

servers for several seconds by 

repeatedly downloading the same 

without relinquishing connections 

data—hundreds or thousands of times— 

become effectively a cyber security 

attack? What standards should EIA 

apply to make that determination? 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be considered by EIA in 

the development of future 

dissemination policies, processes and 

systems. The comments will also 

become a matter of public record. 

After consideration of the comments, 

EIA will issue a description of revised 

policies, processes and technologies 

used for disseminating the WPSR and 

the WNGSR. The description will be 

announced in a Federal Register notice 

issued by EIA. 

Statutory Authority: 15 U.S.C. 764(b) and 

790(a). 

Issued in Washington, DC, October 8, 2008. 

Howard Gruenspecht, 

Acting Administrator, Energy Information 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. E8–24487 Filed 10–14–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket No. IC09–65A–000; FERC–65A] 

Commission Information Collection 

Activities, Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request; Extension 

October 8, 2008. 

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: In compliance with the 

requirements of section 3506(c)(2)(a) of 

the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(Pub. L. No. 104–13), the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission (Commission) is 

soliciting public comment on the 

specific aspects of the information 

collection described below. 

DATES: Comments on the collection of 

information are due November 14, 2008. 

ADDRESSES: Copies of sample filings of 

the proposed information collection can 

be obtained from the Commission’s Web 

site (http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filings/ 

elibrary.asp) or from the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, Attn: Michael 

Miller, Office of the Executive Director, 

ED–34, 888 First Street, NE., 

Washington, DC 20426. Comments may 

be filed either in paper format or 

electronically. Those parties filing 

electronically do not need to make a 

paper filing. For paper filing, the 

original and 14 copies of such 

comments should be submitted to the 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES