[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 203 (Tuesday, October 21, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60106-60107]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-26494]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


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

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for review under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) information 
collection requirements contained in its Alternative Fuel Rule. The FTC 
is seeking public comments on the proposal to extend through November 
30, 2006 the current PRA clearance for information collection 
requirements contained in the Rule. That clearance expires on November 
30, 2003.

DATES: Comments must be filed by November 20, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Secretary, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20580, or by e-mail to [email protected], as prescribed below, and to: 
Records Management Center, ATTN: Desk Officer for the FTC, OMB, Room 
10102 NEOB, fax: 202/395-6566. The submissions should include 
the submitter's name, address, telephone number and, if available, FAX 
number and e-mail address. All submissions should be captioned 
``Alternative Fuel Rule Paperwork comment.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for copies of the collection 
of information and supporting documentation should be addressed to Neil 
Blickman, Division of Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer Protection, 
Federal Trade Commission, 601 New Jersey Ave., NW., Room NJ-2245, 
Washington, DC 20580.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 6, 2003, the FTC sought comment on 
the information collection requirements associated with the Alternative 
Fuel Rule (``Rule''), 16 CFR Part 309 (Control Number: 3084-0094). See 
68 FR 46640. No comments were received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations 
that implement the PRA (5 CFR Part 1320), the FTC is providing this 
second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to 
extend the existing paperwork clearance for the Rule.
    Comments from members of the public are invited, and may be filed 
with the Commission in either paper or electronic form. A public 
comment filed in paper form should be mailed or delivered to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission/Office of the Secretary, 
Room 159-H, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. If the 
comment contains any material for which confidential treatment is 
requested, it must be filed in paper (rather than electronic) form, and 
the first page of the document must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential.'' \1\ A public comment that does not contain any 
material for which confidential treatment is requested may instead be 
filed in electronic form (in ASCII format, WordPerfect, or Microsoft 
Word), as part of or as an attachment to an email message sent to the 
following email box: [email protected]. Regardless of the form in which they 
are filed, all timely comments will be considered by the Commission, 
and will be available (with confidential material redacted) for public 
inspection and copying at the Commission's principal office and on the 
Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov. As a matter of discretion, 
the Commission makes every effort to remove home contact information 
for individuals from the public comments it receives, before placing 
those comments on the FTC web site.
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    \1\ FTC Rule 4.2(b), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must also be 
accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, 
including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must 
identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the 
Commission's General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 
public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    The Rule, which implements the Energy Policy Act of 1992, Public 
Law 102-486, requires disclosure of specific information on labels 
posted on fuel dispensers for non-liquid alternative fuels and on 
labels on Alternative Fueled Vehicles (AFVs). To ensure the accuracy of 
these disclosures, the Rule also requires that sellers maintain records 
substantiating produce-specific disclosures they include on these 
labels.
    Burden statement:
    It is common practice for alternative fuel industry members to 
determine and monitor fuel ratings in the normal course of their 
business activities. This is because industry members must know and 
determine the fuel ratings of their products in order to monitor 
quality and to decide how to market them. ``Burden'' for PRA purposes 
is defined to exclude effort that would be expended regardless of any 
regulatory requirement. 5 CFR 1320.2(b)(2). Moreover, as originally 
anticipated when the Rule was promulgated in 1995, many of the 
information collection requirements and the originally-estimated hours 
were associated with one-time start up tasks of implementing standard 
systems and processes.
    Other factors also limit the burden associated with the Rule. 
Certification may be a one-time event or require only infrequent 
revision. Disclosures on electric vehicle fuel dispensing systems may 
be useable for several years. (Label specifications were designed to 
produce labels to withstand the elements for several years.) 
Nonetheless, there is still some burden associated with posting labels. 
There also will be some minimal burden associated with new or revised 
certification of fuel ratings and recordkeeping. The burden on vehicle 
manufacturers is limited because only newly-manufactured vehicles will 
require label posting and manufacturers produce very few new models 
each year. Finally, there will be some burden, also minor, associated 
with recordkeeping requirements.
    Estimated total annual hours burden: 2,100 total burden hours, 
rounded.
    Non-liquid alternative fuels:
    Certification: Staff estimates that the Rule's fuel rating 
certification requirements will affect approximately 550 industry 
members (compressed natural gas procedures and distributors and 
manufacturers of electric vehicle fuel dispensing systems) and consume 
approximately one hour each per year for a total of 550 hours.
    Recordkeeping: Staff estimates that all 1,800 industry members will 
be subject to the Rule's recordkeeping requirements (associated with 
fuel rating certification) and that compliance will require 
approximately one-tenth hour each per year for a total of 180 hours.
    Labeling: Staff estimates that labeling requirements will affect 
approximately nine of every ten industry members (or roughly 1,600 
members), but that the number of annually affected members is only 320 
because labels may remain effective for several years (staff assumes 
that in any given year approximately 20% of 1,600 industry members will 
need to replace their labels). Staff estimates that industry members 
require approximately one hour each per year for labeling their fuel 
dispensers for a total of 320 hours.
    Sub-total: 1,050 hours (550 + 180 + 320).
    AFV manufacturers:

[[Page 60107]]

    Recordkeeping: Staff estimates that all 58 manufacturers will 
require 30 minutes to comply with the Rule's recordkeeping requirements 
for a total of 29 hours.
    Producing labels: Staff estimates 2.5 hours as the average time 
required of manufacturers to produce labels for each of the five new 
AFV models introduced among them each year for a total of 12.5 hours.
    Posting labels: Staff estimates 2 minutes as the average time to 
comply with the posting requirements for each of the approximately 
30,000 new AFVs manufactured each year for a total of 1,000 hours.
    Sub-total: Approximately 1,041 hours (29 + 12.5 + 1,000).
    Thus, total burden for these industries combined is approximately 
2,100 hours (1,050 + 1,041).
    Estimated labor costs: $47,000, rounded.
    Labor costs are derived by applying appropriate hourly cost figures 
to the burden hours described above. According to Bureau of Labor 
Statistics staff, the average compensation for producers and 
distributors in the fuel industry is $18.98 per hour and $8.56 per hour 
for service station employees; the average compensation for workers in 
the vehicle industry is $27.80 per hour.
    Non-liquid alternative fuels:
    Certification and labeling: Generally, all of the estimated hours 
except for recordkeeping will be performed by procedures and 
distributors of fuels. Thus, the associated labor costs would be 
$16,512.60 (870 hours x $18.98).
    Recordkeeping: Only \1/6\ of the total 180 hours will be performed 
by the producers and distributors of fuels; the other \5/6\ is 
attributable to service station employees (\1/6\ = 30 hours x $18.98 = 
$569.40 + (\5/6\ = 150 hours x $8.56 = $1,284.00) = $1,853.40, for an 
estimated labor cost to the entire industry of $18,366.00.
    AFV manufacturers:
    The maximum labor cost to the entire industry is approximately 
$28,939.80 per year for recordkeeping and producing and posting labels 
(1,041 total hours x $27.80/hour).
    Thus, estimated total labor cost for both industries for all 
paperwork requirements is $47,000 ($18,366.00 + $28,939.80) per year, 
rounded to the nearest thousand.
    Estimated annual non-labor cost burden: $12,000, rounded.
    Non-liquid alternative fuels:
    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs associated 
with the Rule, inasmuch as the Rule has been effective since 1995. 
Industry members, therefore, have in place the capital equipment and 
means necessary, especially to determine automotive fuel ratings and 
comply with the Rule. Industry members, however, incur the cost of 
procuring fuel dispenser and AFV labels to comply with the Rule. The 
estimated annual fuel labeling cost, based on estimates of 500 fuel 
dispensers (assumptions: an estimated 20% of 1,250 total retailers need 
to replace labels in any given year given an approximate five-year life 
of labels--i.e., 250 retailers--multiplied by an average of two 
dispensers per retailer) at thirty-eight cents for each label (per 
industry sources), is $190.00.
    AFV manufacturers:
    Here, too, staff believes that there are no current start-up costs 
associated with the Rule, for the same reasons as stated immediately 
above regarding the non-liquid alternative fuel industry. However, 
based on the labeling of an estimated 30,000 new and used AFVs each 
year at thirty-eight cents for each label (per industry sources), the 
annual AFV labeling cost is estimated to be $11,400.
    Thus, estimated total annual non-labor cost burden associated with 
the Rule is $12,000 ($190.00 + $11,400.00), rounded to the nearest 
thousand.

William E. Kovacic,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 03-26494 Filed 10-20-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M