[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 4, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 5628]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-2509]



[[Page 5628]]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of Energy 
(DOE).

ACTION: Agency information collection activities: Submission for OMB 
review; comment request.

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SUMMARY: The EIA has submitted the energy information collections 
listed at the end of this notice to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review and a three-year extension under section 3507(h)(1) of 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et 
seq).

DATES: Comments must be filed on or before March 6, 2003. If you 
anticipate that you will be submitting comments but find it difficult 
to do so within that period, you should contact the OMB Desk Officer 
for DOE listed below as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to the OMB Desk Officer for DOE, Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 
726 Jackson Place NW., Washington, DC 20503. The OMB DOE Desk Officer 
may be telephoned at (202) 395-3084. (A copy of your comments should 
also be provided to EIA's Statistics and Methods Group at the address 
below.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be directed to Grace Sutherland, Statistics and Methods Group, 
(EI-70), Forrestal Building, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC 
20585-0670. Ms. Sutherland may be contacted by telephone at (202) 426-
1068, FAX at (202) 426-1081, or e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This section contains the following 
information about the energy information collections submitted to OMB 
for review: (1) The collection numbers and title; (2) the sponsor 
(i.e., the Department of Energy component); (3) the current OMB docket 
number (if applicable); (4) the type of request (i.e, new, revision, 
extension, or reinstatement); (5) response obligation (i.e., mandatory, 
voluntary, or required to obtain or retain benefits); (6) a description 
of the need for and proposed use of the information; (7) a categorical 
description of the likely respondents; and (8) an estimate of the total 
annual reporting burden (i.e., the estimated number of likely 
respondents times the proposed frequency of response per year times the 
average hours per response).
    1. Forms EIA-846 A/B/C, ``Manufacturing Energy Consumption 
Survey''.
    2. Energy Information Administration.
    3. OMB Number 1905-0169.
    4. Three-year extension.
    5. Mandatory.
    6. EIA-846 (A), (B), and (C) will be used to collect data on energy 
consumption and related subjects for the manufacturing sector of the 
U.S. economy. In addition to being used for the National Energy 
Modeling System, the MECS is used to augment a database on the 
manufacturing sector. Respondents are manufacturing establishments. In 
addition to the changes proposed in an earlier August 26, 2002 Federal 
Register notice (67 FR 54797) soliciting public comments on MECS, EIA 
is proposing to add questions to the MECS regarding the production of 
steam and other thermal output. The first two items will be located in 
what was Section 3 of 1998 MECS questionnaires. The first question will 
ask for the amount of steam produced within onsite combined-heat-power/
cogeneration units and the second question will ask for the amount of 
steam produced in steam only (or hot water only) boilers. These changes 
mirror what is currently asked on Section 2, Electricity. The MECS has 
always asked for the amount of steam and hot water produced from 
renewable energy, such as from solar and geothermal means, and will 
continue to do so.
    Another related change is a modification to the end-use matrix. EIA 
proposes to subdivide the current end-use category ``boiler fuel'' into 
consumption used for ``boiler fuel in a combined-heat-power/
cogeneration process'' and ``any boiler fuel not included (in the 
previous category). Please note that in those questions and others, no 
end-use categorization of steam and hot-water is required.
    These additional changes are proposed because of the increasing 
focus on issues related to combined heat and power and the need for 
information on this topic. As steam and electricity production leave 
the direct control of the manufacturing plant, EIA needs a better 
understanding of the effects on energy consumption.
    7. Business or other for-profit.
    8. 55,291 (18,000 respondents X 1 response per year X 9.22 hours) 
With a 3-year approval, the burden is prorated over the three-year 
period and averaged from a total of 165,873 hours.

    Authority: Section 3507(h)(1) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (Pub. L. No. 104-13).

    Issued in Washington, DC, January 21, 2003.
Jay H. Casselberry,
Agency Clearance Officer, Statistics and Methods Group, Energy 
Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 03-2509 Filed 2-3-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P