Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/08/16/2013-20037/minerals-management-adjustment-of-cost-recovery-fees
Timestamp: 2016-05-27 06:36:49
Document Index: 403810576

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 3730', 'art 3730', 'art 3730', '§ 1507', 'art 3000', '§ 3000', '§ 3000']

Publication Date: Friday, August 16, 2013
Dates: This final rule is effective October 1, 2013.
78 FR 49945
-49950 (6 pages)
1004-AE32
Document Number: 2013-20037
Shorter URL: https://federalregister.gov/a/2013-20037 Related Topics
Fixed Cost Recovery Fees FY14
FY 2014 Processing and Filing Fee Table
This final rule is effective October 1, 2013.
You may send inquiries or suggestions to Director (630), Bureau of Land Management, 2134LM, 1849 C Street NW., Washington, DC 20240; Attention: RIN 1004-AE32.
Steven Wells, Chief, Division of Fluid Minerals, 202-912-7143, Mitchell Leverette, Chief, Division of Solid Minerals, 202-912-7113; or Faith Bremner, Regulatory Affairs Analyst, 202-912-7441. Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may leave a message for these individuals with the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
At 43 CFR 3000.12(a), the regulations provide that the BLM will annually adjust fees established in Subchapter C according to changes in the Implicit Price Deflator for Gross Domestic Product (IPD-GDP), which is published quarterly by the U.S. Department of Commerce. See also 43 CFR 3000.10. This final rule will allow the BLM to update these fees and service charges by October 1 of this year, as required by the 2005 regulation. The fee recalculations are based on a mathematical formula. The public had an opportunity to comment on this procedure during the comment period on the original cost recovery rule, and this new rule simply administers the procedure set forth in those regulations. Therefore, the BLM has changed the fees in this final rule without providing opportunity for additional notice and comment. The Department of the Interior, therefore, for good cause finds under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and (d)(3) that notice and public comment procedures are unnecessary.
II. Discussion of Final Rule Back to Top
The BLM publishes a fee update rule each year, which becomes effective on October 1 of that year. The fee updates are based on the change in the IPD-GDP from the 4th Quarter of one calendar year to the 4th Quarter of the following calendar year. This fee update rule is based on the change in the IPD-GDP from the 4th Quarter of 2011 to the 4th Quarter of 2012, thus reflecting the rate of inflation over four calendar quarters.
Under this rule, 30 fees will remain the same and 18 fees will increase. Nine of the fee increases will amount to $5 each. The largest increase, $55, will be applied to the fee for adjudicating a mineral patent application containing more than 10 claims, which will increase from $2,940 to $2,995. The fee for adjudicating a patent application containing 10 or fewer claims will increase by $25—from $1,470 to $1,495.
In this rule, we will correct the title given in the table for 43 CFR part 3730. The title used in prior rules, “Multiple Use, Mining,” is actually the title for Group 3700, the group of regulations that includes part 3730. The specific title for part 3730, in which the fee for a notice of protest of placer mining operations is found at 43 CFR 3736.2(b), is “Public Law 359; Mining in Powersite Withdrawals: General.” This is a technical revision that has no substantive effect.
The calculations that resulted in the new fees are included in the table below: Fixed Cost Recovery Fees FY14 Back to Top
Existing fee1
Existing value2
IPD-GDP Increase3
New value4
New fee5
1The Existing Fee was established by the 2012 (Fiscal Year 2013) cost recovery fee update rule published September 10, 2012 (77 FR 55420), effective October 1, 2012.
2The Existing Value is the figure from the New Value column in the previous year's rule.
3From 4th Quarter 2011 to 4th Quarter 2012, the IPD-GDP increased by 1.84 percent. The value in the IPD-GDP Increase column is 1.84 percent of the Existing Value.
4The sum of the Existing Value and the IPD-GDP Increase is the New Value.
5The New Fee for Fiscal Year 2014 is the New Value rounded to the nearest $5 for values equal to or greater than $1, or to the nearest penny for values under $1.
6Section 365 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-58) directed in subsection (i) that “the Secretary shall not implement a rulemaking that would enable an increase in fees to recover additional costs related to processing drilling-related permit applications and use authorizations.” In the 2005 cost recovery rule, the BLM interpreted this prohibition to apply to geophysical exploration permits. 70 FR 58854—58855. While the $25 fees for geophysical exploration permit applications for Alaska and renewals of exploration permits for Alaska pre-dated the 2005 cost recovery rule and were not affected by the Energy Policy Act prohibition, the BLM interprets the Energy Policy Act provision as prohibiting it from increasing this $25 fee.
7The BLM interprets the Energy Policy Act prohibition discussed in footnote 6, above, as prohibiting it from increasing this $25 fee, as well.
Source for Implicit Price Deflator for Gross Domestic Product data: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (April 26, 2013).
Nomination of lands:
plus per acre nomination fee
(more than 10 claims)
2,938.65
(10 or fewer claims)
Application for assignment or sublease of record title or overriding royalty
III. How Fees Are Adjusted Back to Top
In addition, this final rule does not materially affect the budgetary impact of entitlements, grants, or loan programs, or the rights and obligations of their recipients. This rule applies an inflation factor that increases some existing user fees for processing documents associated with the onshore minerals programs. However, most of these fee increases are less than 3 percent and none of the increases materially affect the budgetary impact of user fees.
The final rule may affect a large number of small entities since 18 fees for activities on public lands will be increased. However, the BLM has concluded that the effects will not be significant. Most of the fixed fee increases will be less than 3 percent as a result of this final rule. The adjustments result in no increase in the fee for the processing of 30 documents relating to the BLM's minerals programs. The highest adjustment, in dollar terms, is for adjudications of mineral patent applications involving more than 10 mining claims, which will be increased by $55. For the 2005 final rule, the BLM completed a threshold analysis, which is available for public review in the administrative record for that rule. For instructions on how to view a copy of that analysis, please contact one of the persons listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section above. The analysis for the 2005 rule concluded that the fees would not have a significant economic effect on a substantial number of small entities. The fee increases implemented in today's rule are substantially smaller than those provided for in the 2005 rule.
(6) 1004-0073 which expires August 31, 2013, renewal pending;
Pursuant to Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations and the environmental policies and procedures of the Department of the Interior, the term “categorical exclusions” means categories of actions “which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a Federal agency in implementation of [CEQ] regulations (§ 1507.3) and for which, therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required.” 40 CFR 1508.4; see also BLM National Environmental Policy Act Handbook H-1790-1, Ch. 4, at 17 (Jan. 2008).
In accordance with Executive Order 13211, the BLM has determined that this final rule is not likely to have a significant adverse effect on the supply, distribution, or use of energy. The distribution of or use of energy would not be unduly affected by this final rule. It merely adjusts certain administrative cost recovery fees to account for inflation. Author
List of Subjects in 43 CFR Part 3000 Back to Top
2.Amend § 3000.12 by revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: § 3000.12 What is the fee schedule for fixed fees?
FY 2014 Processing and Filing Fee Table Back to Top
FY 2014 fee
2,995 (more than 10 claims)
1,495 (10 or fewer claims)
[FR Doc. 2013-20037 Filed 8-15-13; 8:45 am]