[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 125 (Wednesday, June 29, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38117-38118]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-16305]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Office of the Secretary

[Docket ID DOD-2011-OS-0069]


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment Regarding 
DLA Energy's Mobility Fuel Purchasing Programs

AGENCY: Defense Logistics Agency Energy (DLA Energy), DoD.

ACTION: Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment 
Regarding DLA Energy's Mobility Fuel Purchasing Programs.

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SUMMARY: The Defense Logistics Agency is America's combat logistics 
support agency responsible for sourcing and providing nearly every 
consumable item used by U.S. military forces worldwide. DLA Energy is a 
primary level field activity of DLA responsible for providing the 
Department of Defense and other government agencies with comprehensive 
energy solutions in the most effective and efficient manner possible. 
Its products and services offer a large array of energy related needs 
for the Federal Government and also help facilitate the cycle of 
storage and deployment of fuels and other energy sources.
    DLA Energy's action, to purchase mobility fuels for the Department 
of Defense, has not changed. However, the nature and makeup of the 
petroleum market has. Crude oil from Canada represents 13% of total 
United States consumption. The Canadian Association of Petroleum 
Producers 2010 forecast states that by 2020 Canadian oil sands 
production will rise from 2.72 million barrels per day in 2009 to 4.34 
million barrels per day in 2025. In addition, within the past three 
years, the Department of State has approved two new pipelines to 
transport crude oil derived from Canadian oil sands to the United 
States. An additional permit for a third pipeline is pending. Thus, 
more petroleum products derived from Canadian oil sands recovered crude 
may be available within the United States petroleum market. In 
addition, because various types of crudes are comingled prior to 
processing and because refined petroleum products are fungible, it is 
anticipated that these petroleum products produced from Canadian oil 
sands recovered crude will be blended with and thus indistinguishable 
from other petroleum products, thereby making it difficult for DLA 
Energy to exclude Canadian oil sands recovered crude refined petroleum 
from routine petroleum purchases. Therefore, DLA Energy has decided to 
study whether its

[[Page 38118]]

current purchases of mobility fuels for its customers today, and in the 
future, would or would not have environmental consequences. DLA Energy 
will conduct an Environmental Assessment to evaluate the potential 
environmental, human health, engineering and socioeconomic 
considerations, including a review of lifecycle greenhouse gas 
emissions, associated with DLA Energy's purchase of mobility fuels, 
including any fuels containing Canadian oil sands recovered crude, in 
light of Section 526 of the EISA.
    The Environmental Assessment will aid DLA Energy in defining the 
effects of its current mobility fuels purchasing program, and determine 
whether a modification to this program would bring an improved 
environmental outcome without consequences to DLA Energy's mission to 
support the Warfighter with comprehensive Energy solutions in the most 
effective and efficient manner possible.
    This notice serves as an announcement of scoping. As such, comments 
are sought from the public, government agencies, and other interested 
persons and organizations. Scoping is used to gain insight into the 
issues to be addressed and to identify other significant issues related 
to the proposed actions. All comments submitted during scoping will be 
considered by DLA Energy.
    There is always the possibility that DLA Energy might proceed to 
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed actions 
instead of an Environmental Assessment. If this occurs, comments 
submitted now will be considered for any Environmental Impact Statement 
that is developed.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the issues and alternatives to be 
addressed in the Environmental Assessment must be postmarked or e-
mailed no later than 30 days from the date of publication.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by the docket ID and 
title, by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: [email protected]. Include the docket ID in the subject 
line of the message.
     Mail: Project Manager for NEPA, DLA Installation Support 
for Energy, 8725 John J Kingman Road, Suite 2828, Fort Belvoir, VA 
22060.
     Mailing List: To be added to a mailing list about the 
proposed actions, contact DLA Installation Support for Energy at 703-
767-8312.

    Note: Before including your address, phone number, e-mail 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, 
be advised that your entire comment, including your personal 
identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask in your comment to withhold from public review 
your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donald Martin, Environmental 
Management Division, DLA Installation Support for Energy, 8725 John J. 
Kingman Road, Suite 2828, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060, (703) 767-8312, 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the DLA Energy (formerly 
known as Defense Energy Support Center) is to provide the Department of 
Defense (DoD) and other government agencies with comprehensive energy 
solutions in the most effective and efficient manner possible. DLA 
Energy contracts for fuel and other types of energy on behalf of the 
DoD and other government agencies.
    More than 99% of the fuel DLA Energy purchases are petroleum 
products. In FY 2010, DLA Energy purchased 5.5 billion gallons of fuel 
world wide, which included aviation fuels, marine distillate fuels and 
ground products such as heating oil, diesel and gasoline. Although DLA 
Energy is the largest federal government purchaser of petroleum, its 
purchases constitute less than 2% of total United States consumption. 
Within the jet fuel market, DLA Energy's purchases are about 10% of 
total United States jet fuel consumption.
    For all of its procurements, DLA Energy follows standard 
procurement procedures as required in the Federal Acquisition 
Regulation and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. 
DLA Energy uses commercial contracting procedures for commercial items 
found in Part 12 of these regulations. Almost all contracts are 
solicited using full and open competitive procedures and are awarded 
based on price. All the petroleum based fuel contracts contain economic 
price adjustment provisions, using market based industry publications.
    DLA Energy relies on industry practices and standards for 
manufacture, delivery, inspection, and acceptance of the fuels it 
purchases. All petroleum fuels are purchased under commercial or 
military specifications. The military specification fuel differs in 
only a few parameters from the commercial counterpart, such as flash 
point, freeze point and some special fuel additives. The military 
specification fuel is produced in the same refineries by the same 
methods as other commercial petroleum products and the same refineries 
which are producing military specification product for DLA Energy are 
producing commercial petroleum products at the same time.
    In addition, Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security 
Act of 2007 requires that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of 
alternative or synthetic fuels, including a fuel produced from 
nonconventional petroleum sources, be less than or equal to the 
lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of equivalent conventional petroleum 
in order for the federal government to contract for the fuel.

    Dated: June 20, 2011.
Aaron Siegel,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2011-16305 Filed 6-28-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 5001-06-P