[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 101 (Wednesday, May 24, 2000)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 33446-33448]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-13006]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Part 388

[Docket No. RM00-8-000; Order No. 640]


Revision of Public Reference Room Procedures for Record Requests

May 17, 2000.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is updating its 
regulation at part 388 governing fees for paper copies of records 
available in its

[[Page 33447]]

Public Reference Room. Until now, to enable requesters to determine 
whether they wished to order lengthy Commission documents before having 
to pay for their entire request, the Commission would provide paper 
copies of up to ten pages free of charge. Now, however, because 
Commission documents may be previewed electronically over the Internet 
and in the Public Reference Room, the Commission is eliminating its 
existing rule providing for up to ten pages without charge. The 
Commission is also providing that the schedule of fees for finding and 
duplicating records from the Public Reference Room will be available on 
the Commission's Web site.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This Final Rule is effective June 23, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Katherine Waldbauer (Legal Information) Office of General Counsel, 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE Washington, 
DC 20426 Telephone: (202) 208-0232
Katherina Quijada-Cusack (Technical Information), Office of the Chief 
Information Officer, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First 
Street, NE Washington, DC 20426, Telephone: (202) 208-1748

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is 
updating its regulation at Part 388 \1\ governing fees for paper copies 
of records available in its Public Reference Room. The Commission is 
eliminating its existing rule that, as to documents from the 
Commission's Records and Management Information System (RIMS) which may 
be viewed electronically, requesters may obtain requests consisting of 
ten or fewer pages without charge. The Commission is also providing 
that the schedule of fees for finding and duplicating records from the 
Public Reference Room will be available on the Commission's Web 
site.\2\
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    \1\ 18 CFR Part 388.
    \2\ The fee schedule will be available at www.ferc.fed.us/
public/pubref1.htm.
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II. Background and Discussion

    Section 388.109(a)(4) of the Commission's regulations currently 
states that ``[t]he public may purchase hard copies of certain 
documents from the Commission's Records Management and Information 
System (RIMS). The fee is 15 cents per page. There will be no charge 
for requests consisting of ten or fewer pages.'' RIMS is a database 
containing the indexes and images of documents submitted to and issued 
by the Commission since November 16, 1981. It consists of (a) an 
electronic database consisting of the scanned-in images of the majority 
of documents submitted to and issued by the Commission since November 
1995 and (b) the majority of documents from 1981 until November 1995 
which are available only on microform, a data storage system which 
includes microfilm and aperture cards. All RIMS documents designated as 
``public documents'' are available to the general public, and the 
majority of RIMS public documents are accessible for viewing and 
printing through the Commission's Web site free of charge. This rule 
will eliminate the practice of providing, without charge, paper copies 
of ten or fewer pages from documents that are available electronically 
from RIMS.
    Beginning in July 1994, the Commission began scanning images of 
selected documents into the RIMS electronic database, gradually phasing 
in additional documents. Since July, 1994, the Commission has 
accumulated a sizeable library of imaged documents. As of February 
2000, RIMS contained 470,753 documents comprised of 7,945,632 pages. In 
addition, the Commission recently enhanced RIMS further to include an 
improved print capability which allows easier printing of large blocks 
of pages and higher quality output. Until April 1998, the general 
public could only obtain documents from RIMS by contacting or going to 
the Public Reference Room. Since that date the RIMS electronic database 
has been available through the Commission's Web site, and all of the 
documents scanned into the RIMS electronic database are now available 
for viewing and printing through that means. Users with computers who 
are able to access the Internet are able to view images and print 
images to their personal printers at no cost.
    Before the Commission made access to the RIMS electronic database 
available through the Internet, the documents could not be viewed prior 
to being printed. The Commission's regulations, therefore, allowed 
individuals to request up to ten pages of a document to be printed from 
microform without charge to determine if the document, or a portion 
thereof, was what was actually needed by the requester. Now, however, 
in addition to having RIMS available in the Public Reference Room, the 
majority of documents requested from RIMS--namely, those available on 
the RIMS electronic database--can be viewed by the public on the 
Commission's Web site without charge. Images of scanned documents may 
now be previewed, and users can print scanned documents directly to 
their own printers. Alternatively, users still may come to the Public 
Reference Room to view images on publicly-available computers. Given 
that previewing of documents can now be done electronically, the 
Commission is eliminating the practice of printing ten or fewer pages 
for free for documents that are available for preview in the RIMS 
electronic database.
    The elimination of the current procedure allowing requesters to 
obtain print requests of ten or fewer pages without charge will have a 
minimal effect on the public's ability to obtain public records from 
the Commission, since it will affect only requests which under the 
revised rule would cost at most $1.50 per request. Elimination of this 
procedure will also prevent requesters using the Public Reference Room 
from submitting multiple requests at the same time, each seeking 
portions of a document or documents, solely in order to avoid payment 
of fees.
    Certain documents (from 1981 until approximately November 1995) are 
available only on microform. Because documents stored on microform 
cannot be viewed via the Internet, requesters of documents from RIMS 
that are only available on microform will not be charged for requests 
consisting of ten or fewer pages.
    The fee schedule is available upon request from staff of the Public 
Reference Room. The Commission will also publish the fee schedule on 
the Commission's Web site.

III. Regulatory Flexibility Act Statement

    The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) \3\ requires rulemakings to 
contain either a description and analysis of the effect that the Final 
Rule will have on small entities \4\ or a certification that the rule 
will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of 
small entities.
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    \3\ 5 U.S.C. 601-612.
    \4\ 5 U.S.C. 601(3), citing to section 3 of the Small Business 
Act, 15 U.S.C. 632. Section 3 of the Small Business Act defines a 
``small-business concern'' as a business which is independently 
owned and operated and which is not dominant in its field of 
operation.
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    This Final Rule eliminates a requester's ability to obtain from the 
Commission documents that can be previewed from RIMS without charge if 
the request consists of ten or fewer pages, and provides that the 
Public Reference Room will publish its fee

[[Page 33448]]

schedule on the Commission's Web site. The majority of requesters of 
documents who will be affected by this Final Rule, both large and small 
entities, are already able to view and print documents from RIMS from 
the Commission's Web site without charge, and those requesters without 
Internet access are free to use the computers in the Public Reference 
Room without charge to preview RIMS documents. The Commission will 
continue not to charge requesters of documents only available from RIMS 
microform for requests consisting of ten or fewer pages.
    Publishing the fee schedule on the Web site makes it more readily 
available to requesters and is consistent with the current practice of 
publishing the fee schedule of the contractor who provides photocopying 
and other services to the public in the Public Reference Room on the 
Commission's Web site.\5\ These fee schedules are also available upon 
request from the staff of the Public Reference Room.
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    \5\ When this rule goes into effect, the Web page will display a 
fee schedule for services provided by FERC staff at www.ferc.fed.us/
public/pubref1.htm. The Web site currently lists the fee schedule 
for additional services provided by the Commission's on-site 
photocopying contractor, RVJ International, Inc., including self-
service photocopying at 25 cents per page, at www.ferc.fed.us/
public/isd/rvj.htm.
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    The Commission certifies that this rule will not have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

IV. Environmental Statement

    Commission regulations require that an environmental assessment or 
an environmental impact statement be prepared for any Commission action 
that may have a significant adverse effect on the human environment.\6\ 
No environmental consideration is necessary for the promulgation of a 
rule that is procedural, ministerial, or related to internal 
administrative and management actions.\7\ The Final Rule changes are 
procedural in nature and do not substantially change the effect of the 
underlying legislation or regulations being amended. Accordingly, no 
environmental consideration is necessary.
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    \6\ Order No. 486, 52 FR 47897 (Dec. 17, 1987); FERC Stats. & 
Regs. [Regulations Preambles 1986-1990]para. 30,783 (Dec. 10, 1984) 
(codified at 18 CFR Part 380).
    \7\ 18 CFR 380.4(a)(1).
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V. Information Collection Statement

    Regulations promulgated by the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) require that OMB approve certain information collection 
requirements imposed by agency rule.\8\ This Final Rule contains no 
information reporting requirements, and is not subject to these OMB 
regulations.
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    \8\ 5 CFR part 1320.
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VI. Administrative Findings Statement

    The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) \9\ generally requires 
agencies to provide notice of proposed rules and opportunity of public 
comment thereon, but the notice and comment requirement does not apply 
to ``rules of agency organization, procedure, or practice.'' \10\ This 
Final Rule does not substantially alter the right of members of the 
public to obtain documents. Therefore, this is a rule of agency 
organization, procedure or practice for which notice and comment is not 
required.
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    \9\ 5 U.S.C. 551-706.
    \10\ 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A).
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VII. Congressional Notification and Effective Date

    The provisions of 5 U.S.C. 801 regarding Congressional review of 
Final Rules do not apply to this Final Rule because the rule concerns 
agency procedure and practice. The Final Rule will not substantially 
affect the rights and obligations of non-agency parties.\11\ Therefore, 
this Final Rule is effective June 23, 2000.
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    \11\ 5 U.S.C. 804(3)(C).
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VIII. Document Availability

    In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the 
Federal Register, the Commission provides all interested persons an 
opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this document via the 
Internet through FERC's Web site (http://www.ferc.fed.us) and in FERC's 
Public Reference Room during normal business hours (8:30 a.m. to 5:00 
p.m. Eastern time) at 888 First Street, NE., Room 2A, Washington, DC 
20426.
    From FERC's Home Page on the Internet, this information is 
available in both the Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS) and the 
Records and Information Management System (RIMS).
     CIPS provides access to the texts of formal documents 
issued by the Commission since November 14, 1994. CIPS can be accessed 
using the CIPS link or the Energy Information Online icon. The full 
text of this document will be available on CIPS in ASCII and 
WordPerfect 8.0 format for viewing, printing, and/or downloading.
     RIMS contains images of documents submitted to and issued 
by the Commission after November 16, 1981. Documents from November 1995 
to present can be viewed and printed from FERC's Home Page using the 
RIMS link or the Energy Information Online icon. Descriptions of 
documents back to November 16, 1981, are also available from RIMS-on-
the-Web; requests for copies of these and other older documents should 
be submitted to the Public Reference Room.
    User assistance is available for RIMS, CIPS, and the Web site 
during normal business hours from our Help Line at (202) 208-2222 (E-
Mail to [email protected]) or the Public Reference Room at (202) 
208-1371 (E-Mail to [email protected]).
    During normal business hours, documents can also be viewed and/or 
printed in FERC's Public Reference Room, where RIMS, CIPS, and the FERC 
Web site are available. User assistance is also available.

List of Subjects in 18 CFR Part 388

    Confidential business information, Freedom of information

    By the Commission.
Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
    In consideration of the foregoing, the Commission amends part 388, 
title 18, of the Code of Federal Regulations as follows:

PART 388--INFORMATION AND REQUESTS

    1. The authority citation for part 388 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301-305, 551, 552 (as amended), 553-557; 42 
U.S.C. 7101-7352.


    2. In Sec. 388.109, paragraph (a)(4) is revised and paragraph 
(a)(6) is added as follows:


Sec. 388.109  Fees for record requests.

    (a) * * *
    (4)(i) The public may purchase hard copies of documents available 
in electronic form from the Commission's Records and Information 
Management System (RIMS) for 15 cents per page.
    (ii) The public may purchase hard copies of documents that are 
available on microform from RIMS for 15 cents per page. There will be 
no fee for requests for RIMS microform documents consisting of ten or 
fewer pages.
* * * * *
    (6) The fee schedule for Commission documents is available on the 
Commission's Web site at www.ferc.fed.us.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 00-13006 Filed 5-23-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P