[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 241 (Friday, December 15, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 75535-75536]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-21412]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. RM06-22-000]


Mandatory Reliability Standards for Critical Infrastructure 
Protection; Notice of Comment Period

December 11, 2006.
    On August 28, 2006, the North American Electric Reliability 
Council, on behalf of its wholly-owned subsidiary, the North American 
Electric Reliability Corporation (collectively NERC), filed eight 
proposed Reliability Standards concerning Critical Infrastructure 
Protection (CIP) for Commission approval, pursuant to its role as the 
Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) under section 215 of the 
Federal Power Act (FPA). On September 18, 2006, the Commission issued a 
notice announcing that it established a new rulemaking proceeding, 
Docket No. RM06-22-000, to address the proposed CIP Reliability 
Standards.\1\
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    \1\ In addition, the Notice explained that nineteen other new 
and revised proposed Reliability Standards submitted by NERC in the 
same August 28, 2006 filing would be addressed in Docket No. RM06-
16-000.
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    Concurrent with today's notice, the Commission is releasing a staff 
preliminary assessment of the eight proposed CIP Reliability Standards. 
This assessment is a preliminary technical analysis by staff and does 
not offer legal conclusions or recommend any particular action to be 
taken by the Commission. The Commission will issue a Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking (NOPR) with its proposal on each Reliability Standard after 
receiving comments on the staff preliminary assessment. Interested 
persons will also have an opportunity to file comments on the NOPR.
    NERC should respond to this preliminary assessment by February 12, 
2007. We also invite other interested persons to file comments on the 
staff preliminary assessment by the comment date. Comments should 
respond to issues discussed in the preliminary assessment in the order 
in which they appear, and take care to identify which issue, 
Reliability Standard, or specific provision of a Reliability Standard 
is being addressed. Commenters may also address related issues not 
raised in the staff preliminary assessment to assist the Commission to 
make more informed decisions regarding the proposed CIP Reliability 
Standards.
    The Commission encourages electronic submission of comments using 
the ``eFiling'' link at http://www.ferc.gov. Persons unable to file 
electronically should submit an original and 14 copies of their 
comments to the Secretary of the Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
    The staff preliminary assessment is accessible online at http://www.ferc.gov, using the ``eLibrary'' link and is available for review 
in the Commission's Public Reference Room in Washington, DC. There is 
an ``eSubscription'' link on the Web site that enables subscribers to 
receive e-mail notification when a document is added to a subscribed 
docket(s). For assistance with any FERC Online

[[Page 75536]]

service, please e-mail [email protected], or call (866) 208-
3676 (toll free). For TTY, call (202) 502-8659.
    Comment Date: 5 p.m. eastern time on February 12, 2007.

Magalie R. Salas,
Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E6-21412 Filed 12-14-06; 8:45 am]
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