[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 193 (Thursday, October 4, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 50591-50594]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-24801]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Chapter I

[Docket No. RM01-11-000]


Electronic Service of Documents

September 27, 2001.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Energy.

ACTION: Notice of inquiry.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is 
inviting comments on the advisability of modifying its regulations to 
permit the

[[Page 50592]]

Commission to serve documents on parties through electronic means 
(eService). Further, the Commission seeks comment on whether persons 
are interested in a subscription service allowing for documents issued 
by the Commission to be ``pushed'' by electronic means to the 
individual (eDistribution). eDistribution would be unrelated to the 
Commission's obligation to serve parties to a proceeding. To receive 
eDistribution, the individual would not have to have intervened in a 
proceeding before the Commission. In addition, the Commission seeks 
comment on the Commission's role, if any, in encouraging electronic 
service between parties to a proceeding as contemplated by Order No. 
604.\1\
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    \1\ 64 FR 31493 (June 11, 1999); FERC Stats. & Regs., 
Regulations Preambles July 1996-December 2000, para. 31,074 (May 26, 
1999).

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DATES: Comments on this NOI are due on November 2, 2001.

ADDRESSES: All comments should refer to Docket No. RM01-11-000 and 
should be addressed to: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First 
Street, NE., Washington DC, 20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
John White, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426, 
(202) 208-1812, [email protected].
Wilbur Miller, Office of General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426, (202) 208-
0953, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Chapter I

[Docket No. RM01-11-000]

Electronic Service of Documents; Notice of Inquiry

September 27, 2001.

I. Introduction

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is inviting 
comments on a proposal to permit the service of documents by the 
Commission in electronic format, in order to improve the efficiency of 
the Commission's service (eService). The Commission is also exploring 
the public's interest in a separate mechanism to ``push'' documents it 
issues to individuals by electronic means without the individual having 
to intervene (eDistribution). Finally, the Commission invites comments 
whether the Commission has a role in encouraging electronic service of 
documents between parties. This Notice of Inquiry (NOI) is limited in 
scope to the issue of electronic service of the Commission's issuances 
and electronic service among parties. The NOI is not intended to 
explore other aspects of the Commission's service regulations.

II. Background and Discussion

    On May 26, 1999, the Commission issued a rule in Docket No. RM99-6-
000 permitting participants to proceedings before the Commission 
voluntarily to serve documents on one another by electronic means.\2\ 
At that time, the Commission limited the scope of the rule to service 
among participants, and did not effect any change regarding service on 
or by the Commission's Office of the Secretary (OSEC).\3\ In this NOI, 
the Commission wishes to gauge the public's interest in having the 
Commission serve documents by electronic means.
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    \2\ Id.
    \3\ Id. at 31,495.
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    In order to increase the efficiency with which it carries out its 
program responsibilities, the Commission has been implementing measures 
to use information technology in order to reduce the amount of 
paperwork required in its proceedings, and to speed, where possible, 
the task of analysis. This NOI is a step in the process of replacing 
paper issuances with electronic issuances by exploring the advisability 
of a final rule allowing the formal service of issuances via electronic 
means.
    Further, some industry sources have informed the Commission of 
their perception that individuals and organizations sometimes file 
motions to intervene to ensure being informed of developments in 
proceedings before the Commission. The Commission wishes to investigate 
the efficacy of a self-registering automated electronic distribution 
mechanism for the informal promulgation of the Commission's issuances. 
This mechanism would obviate the need for persons not interested in 
becoming a party to the proceeding to intervene just to be kept 
informed.
    The Commission's regulations currently allow, among other things, 
the formal service of documents ``to participants who have agreed to 
receive service via the specified electronic means.'' \4\ This 
regulation currently allows electronic service to occur between 
participants who have reached agreement on the details of how (e.g., 
via e-mail) and in what format (e.g., in MS-Word word-processing file 
format) an electronic document is to be delivered. The Commission 
wishes to determine what, if anything, the Commission can do to 
encourage electronic service among the parties to a proceeding.
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    \4\ 18 CFR 385.2010 (2001).
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    To further its goal of efficient distribution and service of 
documents, the Commission wishes the parties to address the following 
questions relating to each of the named topics.

1. eService of Commission Issuances

    The Commission believes its operations would be more efficient if 
it were to serve its issuances via e-mail (eService of Commission 
Issuances, instead of sending FERC Issuances by regular mail) to 
parties on the Service List. Also, the Commission notes that the 
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts for several years has 
facilitated the filing of case documents in electronic formats in four 
district courts and five bankruptcy courts, and plans to have this 
capability available to more than 200 bankruptcy, district, and 
appellate courts by 2005. Where applicable, the courts require 
attorneys to register to participate in the electronic filing process 
in particular cases, and automatically issue a notice (via email) to 
such registered attorneys when any registered attorney makes an 
electronic filing. Some courts have adopted service by electronic means 
where electronic filing was adopted.\5\
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    \5\ See United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New 
York, In re Electronic Means of Filing, Signing, and Verification 
issued January 19, 2001 and United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern 
District of Georgia General Order No. 5, January 26, 2000.
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    In view of the above, the Commission seeks responses to the 
following questions:
    a. Would adopting eService of Commission issuances via e-mail be 
easier for recipients of the documents than receiving paper service? 
What problems might this introduce? How might such problems be 
mitigated or eliminated?
    b. Would recipients of eService of Commission issuances want to 
receive an eService e-mail as soon as the Commission issues a document? 
Would grouping items into a relatively few e-mails sent every two or 
three hours throughout the day or even grouping all items into a single 
e-mail at the end of the day be preferable?
    c. Currently Commission issuances are available through the 
Commission's website in ASCII,\6\ Wordperfect format,

[[Page 50593]]

and TIF (tagged image file format, a graphical format). Would these or 
other formats, such as PDF, be preferable for eService? Would a link to 
the document on the Commission's website be preferable (though its 
integrity would be guaranteed only for a specific time period)? 
Describe how the size of the document might influence this decision.
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    \6\ ASCII refers to the American Standard Code for Information 
Interchange, a code for character representation.
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    d. Under what circumstances would it be feasible for the Commission 
to use eService as the default method of service with the option to 
receive paper service only upon request?

2. eDistribution

    The Commission also proposes to adopt a mechanism (eDistribution) 
that would permit an individual/organization to register his/her/its e-
mail address in a Commission proceeding so that the individual/
organization would automatically be e-mailed issuances from that 
proceeding without having to formally intervene. Accordingly, the 
Commission seeks comments on the following matters:
    a. How is eDistribution a more desirable mechanism for distribution 
than retrieving copies of documents from the Commission Issuance 
Posting System and the Records Information Management System on the 
Commission's website?
    b. Would eDistribution reduce the number of parties filing motions 
to intervene simply to remain aware of developments in a proceeding? To 
what extent is filing motions for this reason a common practice 
(provide percentage of interventions submitted for this purpose if 
known)? What other benefits might accrue from eDistribution?
    c. What features would such a mechanism need to maximize its 
utility?
    d. Would it be beneficial if the Commission were to e-mail the 
URLs/internet-links (e.g., in RIMS-on-the-Web) of other documents 
besides Commission issuances through the eDistribution mechanism? What 
specific benefits would accrue? What features would such a service 
have?
    e. What, if any, private enterprises are providing a service like 
eDistribution? Please describe them if any exist.
    f. FERC may institute a pilot program for eDistribution prior to 
finalizing rules on the eService of Commission Issuances. FERC is 
considering the imposition of a cost-recovering fee for this service. 
How would this affect your usage of such a service?

3. eService Between Parties

    The Commission seeks comment on whether the process of electronic 
service between parties is working adequately or can be improved.\7\
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    \7\ 18 CFR 385.2010(f)(3) (2001).
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    a. What has been the experience of parties providing electronic 
service to one another?
    b. Is it easy for parties to identify others who are interested in 
electronic service? Would designating those parties on the Service List 
who have expressed a willingness to participate in electronic service 
expedite the parties efforts to arrange electronic service?
    c. In what ways could the Commission encourage the more widespread 
adoption of e-service between parties? For example, should the 
Commission be a central repository for e-mail addresses of parties who 
wish to serve or be served electronically?
    d. What improvements could be made to the online service list at 
fercdocket.ferc.fed.us/pa/pa.htm?

III. Procedure for Comments

    The Commission invites interested persons to submit comments, data, 
views, and other information concerning the matters set out in this 
notice.
    To facilitate the Commission's review of the comments, commenters 
are requested to provide an executive summary of their position on the 
issues raised in the Notice of Inquiry. To facilitate the Commission's 
review of the comments, commenters are requested to identify each 
specific question posed by the NOI that their discussion addresses and 
to use appropriate headings. Additional issues the commenters wish to 
raise should be identified separately. The commenters should double 
space their comments.
    Comments may be filed on paper or electronically via the Internet 
and must be received by the Commission by November 2, 2001. Those 
filing electronically do not need to make a paper filing. For paper 
filings, the original and 14 copies of such comments should be 
submitted to the Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington DC 20426 and should refer 
to Docket No. RM01-11-000.
    Comments filed via the Internet must be prepared in WordPerfect, MS 
Word, Portable Document Format, or ASCII format. To file the document, 
access the Commission's website at www.ferc.gov and click on ``E-
Filing,'' and then follow the instructions for each screen. First time 
users will have to establish a user name and password. The Commission 
will send an automatic acknowledgment to the sender's E-Mail address 
upon receipt of comments.
    User assistance for electronic filing is available at 202-208-0258 
or by E-Mail to [email protected]. Comments should not be submitted 
to the E-Mail address. All comments will be placed in the Commission's 
public files and will be available for inspection in the Commission's 
Public Reference Room at 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426, 
during regular business hours. Additionally, all comments may be 
viewed, printed, or downloaded remotely via the Internet through The 
Commission's Homepage using the RIMS link. User assistance for RIMS is 
available at 202-208-2222, or by E-Mail to [email protected].

IV. 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 the Commission's website (http://www.ferc.gov) and in 
the Commission's Public Reference Room during normal business hours 
(8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time) at 888 First Street, NE., Room 2A, 
Washington, DC 20426.
    From the Commission's website 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.
--The full text of this document is 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 the 
present can be viewed and printed from the Commission's website using 
the RIMS link. 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 website 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]).

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    During normal business hours, documents can also be viewed and/or 
printed in the Commission's Public Reference Room, where RIMS, CIPS, 
and the Commission's website are available. User assistance is also 
available.

    By direction of the Commission.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 01-24801 Filed 10-3-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P