[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 193 (Wednesday, October 6, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59901-59903]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-22424]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

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

ACTION: Agency information collection activities: proposed collection; 
comment request.

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SUMMARY: The EIA is soliciting comments on proposed revisions and 
three-year extensions to the Forms EIA-1, ``Weekly Coal Monitoring 
Report--General Industries and Blast Furnaces'' (Standby); EIA-3, 
``Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Manufacturing 
Plants;'' EIA-4, ``Weekly Coal Monitoring Report--Coke Plants'' 
(Standby); EIA-5, ``Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Coke 
Plants;'' EIA-6A, ``Coal Distribution Report;'' EIA-6Q (Schedule Q), 
``Quarterly Coal Report'' (Standby); EIA-7A, ``Coal Production 
Report;'' and EIA-20, ``Weekly Telephone Survey of Coal Burning 
Utilities'' (Standby). The Standby forms are designed to be utilized 
under certain emergency conditions.

DATES: Comments must be filed by December 6, 2004. If you anticipate 
difficulty in submitting comments within that period, contact the 
person listed below as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to William Watson. To ensure receipt of the 
comments by the due date, submission by FAX (202-287-1934) or e-mail 
([email protected]) is recommended. The mailing address is 
Coal, Nuclear, and Renewables Division, EI-52, Forrestal Building, U.S. 
Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20585. Alternatively, William 
Watson may be contacted by telephone at 202-287-1971.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of any forms and instructions should be directed to William 
Watson at the address listed above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background
II. Current Actions
III. Request for Comments

I. Background

    The Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-275, 15 
U.S.C. 761 et seq.) and the DOE Organization Act (Pub. L. 95-91, 42 
U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) require the EIA to carry out a centralized, 
comprehensive, and unified energy information program. This program 
collects, evaluates, assembles, analyzes, and disseminates information 
on energy resource reserves, production, demand, technology, and 
related economic and statistical information. This information is used 
to assess the adequacy of energy resources to meet near and longer-term 
domestic demands.

[[Page 59902]]

    The EIA, as part of its effort to comply with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), provides 
the general public and other Federal agencies with opportunities to 
comment on collections of energy information conducted by or in 
conjunction with the EIA. Any comments received help the EIA to prepare 
data requests that maximize the utility of the information collected, 
and to assess the impact of collection requirements on the public. 
Also, the EIA will later seek approval by the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) under Section 3507(a) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995.
    EIA conducts coal surveys to collect information on coal 
production, distribution, receipts, consumption, quality, stocks, and 
prices. This information is used to support public policy analyses of 
the coal industry and is published in various EIA publications, 
including the Annual Coal Report, the Annual Energy Review, the Monthly 
Energy Review, and the Quarterly Coal Report. Respondents to the coal 
surveys include coal producers, coal distributors, and coal consumers.
    Please refer to the proposed forms and instructions for more 
information about the purpose, who must report, when to report, where 
to submit, the elements to be reported, detailed instructions, 
provisions for confidentiality, and uses (including possible 
nonstatistical uses) of the information. For instructions on obtaining 
materials, see the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

II. Current Actions

    EIA will be requesting a three-year extension of approval for all 
its coal surveys with changes proposed to Forms EIA-3, EIA-5, EIA-6A, 
and EIA-7A. EIA will not propose any changes to Forms EIA-1, EIA-4, 
EIA-6Q, and EIA-20 (all standby forms). The proposed changes to Forms 
EIA-3, EIA-5, EIA-6A, and EIA-7A are described below:

Form EIA-3 (Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--
Manufacturing Plants)

    Starting in 2000, coal synfuel plants began to be a significant new 
user of coal. (A coal synfuel plant is a facility where freshly-mined 
coal or recovered waste coal is sprayed with binders and heated to 
produce synthetic fuel). In 2001 and subsequent years, EIA added coal 
synfuel plants to the list of respondents to which it sent Form EIA-3, 
``Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Manufacturing 
Plants.'' In the latest completed reporting year, 2003, coal received 
by coal synfuel plants reached more than 115 million tons annually, 
compared to about 60 million tons received annually at other 
manufacturing facilities. However, coal synfuel plants are not the 
final consumers of the coal. Coal synfuel is distributed or sold to 
final consumers such as electric generation plants, other manufacturing 
plants, coke plants, and exported.
    To understand the final disposition of coal it is necessary to have 
data on the amount of coal synfuel distributed or sold by coal synfuel 
plants to each major end-use sector. Accordingly, EIA proposes to add a 
new schedule to the EIA-3 to collect data from coal synfuel plants on 
the quantity (short tons) of coal synfuel distributed or sold by type 
of end-use consumer (e.g., electric generation, manufacturing plant, 
coke plant, export) and by destination State.
    EIA would make the data on coal synfuel final disposition available 
to the public on EIA's website starting in 2005 quarter 1 as part of 
the Quarterly Coal Report. Currently, EIA is not collecting these data 
in any other survey and, therefore, is not providing these data in any 
EIA publication available to the public. The new data tables would 
complete the set of information needed to understand the overall 
disposition of U.S. coal.
    EIA uses an Internet Data Collection system to collect data for the 
EIA-3 form. Currently, all coal synfuel plants submit their data on 
coal receipts and coal use (but not distribution) to the EIA through 
the Internet Data Collection system. The additional schedule would be 
made available only to coal synfuel plants through the Internet Data 
Collection system and would make it possible for coal synfuel plants to 
submit the additional proposed data with minimal effort.
    EIA would extend and reorganize the instructions that accompany the 
EIA-3 form to assist coal synfuel respondents. EIA would prepare and 
provide a Visual Guide to the extended internet data collection form.
    EIA proposes to make additional minor revisions to the EIA-3 
instructions (existing section D) to list the various modes by which 
respondents can submit the data form, to include information on 
Internet Data Collection, Secure File Transfer, mail, E-mail, and 
facsimile. Transport mode options will be expanded to include two 
additional categories: (1) Transport by ship on the Great Lakes and (2) 
transport by tramway or conveyor. These choices will clarify transport 
mode so that more accurate records can be kept by EIA.

Form EIA-5 (Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Coke Plants)

    EIA proposes to make additional minor revisions to the EIA-5 
instructions (existing section D) to list the various modes by which 
respondents can submit the data form, to include information on 
Internet Data Collection, Secure File Transfer, mail, E-mail, and 
facsimile. Transport mode options will be expanded to include two 
additional categories: (1) Transport by ship on the Great Lakes and (2) 
transport by tramway or conveyor. These choices will clarify transport 
mode so that more accurate records can be kept by EIA.

Form EIA-6A (Coal Distribution Report)

    On its EIA-6A data form, EIA collects data on the amount of coal 
distributed by coal producers and distributors to various aggregate 
consumer types such as electric generators, manufacturing plants, coke 
plants, and other sectors. The EIA-6A instructions request that 
respondents include coal distributions to coal synfuel plants as part 
of ``Manufacturing.'' Currently, the use of coal at coal synfuel plants 
represents about twice the volume of coal used by other manufacturing 
plants (115 million tons vs. 60 million tons annually). In feedback to 
EIA, data users have noted the relatively large amount of coal used by 
coal synfuel plants. EIA has determined that better understanding of 
the overall disposition of coal would be improved if coal distributed 
to coal synfuel plants was not aggregated with coal distributed to 
other manufacturing plants. Accordingly, EIA proposes to add a new 
consumer type, Coal Synfuel plants, to the EIA-6A form and request that 
respondents use that consumer type rather than ``Manufacturing'' when 
reporting coal distributed to coal synfuel plants. The form 
instructions would be modified to include the new consumer type.
    The EIA-6A data are published annually on the EIA website in table 
format. The published distribution tables would be modified to break 
out coal synfuel plants as a separate aggregate sector. Consequently, 
data users would be able to understand how much coal is distributed to 
coal synfuel plants, as distinct from the coal distributed to other 
manufacturing facilities.
    Because coal synfuel plants receive relatively large amounts of 
coal and are few in number (55 coal synfuel plants compared to 475 
coal-using manufacturing plants) EIA-6A producer and distributor 
respondents most likely

[[Page 59903]]

know when coal is being distributed or sold to coal synfuel plants. 
Consequently, EIA does not anticipate any change in respondent 
requirements to report data for the new coal synfuel plant consumer 
type.
    EIA proposes to make additional minor revisions to the EIA-6A 
instructions (existing section III) to list the various modes by which 
respondents can submit the data form, to include information on 
Internet Data Collection, mail, and facsimile.

Form EIA-7A (Coal Production Report)

    EIA proposes to simplify the instructions for entering datum in 
Section J. Facility Location.
    EIA publishes data on open market sales (quantity and average sales 
price) that do not distinguish among various open market consumer 
classes. However, Section V of the current EIA-7A data form asks 
respondents to report open market sales to two classes of consumers: 
coal mining companies and coal dealers as one class and all other 
consumers as a second class. Because the data by individual class are 
not published (only aggregate data are published), EIA proposes to 
collapse the two classes of open market sales to a single open market 
sale category.

III. Request for Comments

    Prospective respondents and other interested parties should comment 
on the actions discussed in Item II. The following guidelines are 
provided to assist in the preparation of comments. Please indicate to 
which form(s) your comments apply.

General Issues

    A. Is the proposed collection of information necessary for the 
proper performance of the functions of the agency and does the 
information have practical utility? Practical utility is defined as the 
actual usefulness of information to or for an agency, taking into 
account its accuracy, adequacy, reliability, timeliness, and the 
agency's ability to process the information it collects.
    B. What enhancements can be made to the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected?

As a Potential Respondent to the Request for Information

    A. What actions could be taken to help ensure and maximize the 
quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of the information to be 
collected?
    B. Are the instructions and definitions clear and sufficient? If 
not, which instructions need clarification?
    C. Can the information be submitted by the due date?
    D. Public reporting burden for each of the coal surveys is shown 
below as an average hour(s) per response. The estimated burden includes 
the total time necessary to provide the requested information. In your 
opinion, how accurate is this estimate?

--Form EIA-1, ``Weekly Coal Monitoring Report--General Industries and 
Blast Furnaces'' (Standby); 1.0 hour per response (no change from 
existing estimate of 1 hour)
--Form EIA-3, ``Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--
Manufacturing Plants;''
    1 hour per response, manufacturing plants (no change from existing 
estimate of 1 hour).
    1.5 hours per response, coal synfuel plants (new schedule for 
respondent, existing estimate without new schedule is 1 hour).

--Form EIA-4, ``Weekly Coal Monitoring Report--Coke Plants'' (Standby); 
1.0 hour per response (no change from existing estimate of 1 hour)
--Form EIA-5, ``Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Coke 
Plants;'' 1.5 hours per response (no change from existing estimate of 
1.5 hours)
--Form EIA-6A, ``Coal Distribution Report;'' 5.0 hours per response (no 
change from existing estimate of 5.0 hours)
--Form EIA-6Q, `Quarterly Coal Report'' (Standby); 1 hour per response 
(no change from existing estimate of 1 hour)
--Form EIA-7A, ``Coal Production Report;'' 1 hour per response (no 
change from existing estimate of 1 hour)
--Form EIA-20, ``Weekly Telephone Survey of Coal Burning Utilities'' 
(Standby) 1 hour per response (no change from existing estimate of 1 
hour)

    Forms EIA-1, 4, 6Q, and 20 are Standby surveys. The above estimates 
reflect the anticipated burden per response in the event these surveys 
are implemented.
    E. The agency estimates that the only cost to a respondent is for 
the time it will take to complete the collection. Will a respondent 
incur any start-up costs for reporting, or any recurring annual costs 
for operation, maintenance, and purchase of services associated with 
the information collection?
    F. What additional actions could be taken to minimize the burden of 
this collection of information? Such actions may involve the use of 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    G. Does any other Federal, State, or local agency collect similar 
information? If so, specify the agency, the data element(s), and the 
methods of collection.

As a Potential User of the Information To Be Collected

    A. What actions could be taken to help ensure and maximize the 
quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of the information 
disseminated?
    B. Is the information useful at the levels of detail to be 
collected?
    C. For what purpose(s) would the information be used? Be specific.
    D. Are there alternate sources for the information and are they 
useful? If so, what are their weaknesses and/or strengths?
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of the form. They also 
will become a matter of public record.

    Statutory Authority: Section 3507(h)(1) of the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).

    Issued in Washington, DC, September 29, 2004.
Jay H. Casselberry,
Agency Clearance Officer, Statistics and Methods Group, Energy 
Information Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-22424 Filed 10-5-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-U