[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8852-8853]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-3535]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy


Proposed Agency Information Collection

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. 
Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) invites public comment on a 
proposed collection of information for a National Evaluation of the 
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) that DOE 
is developing for submission to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Comments are 
invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the 
accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed 
collection of information, including the validity of the methodology 
and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize 
the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology. Information about the outcomes of the program, 
including energy and cost savings, the net number of jobs created or 
retained, and gross reductions in carbon emissions, is needed for a 
comprehensive evaluation of the program.

DATES: Comments regarding this proposed information collection must be 
received on or before April 16, 2012. If you anticipate difficulty in 
submitting comments within that period, contact the person listed in 
ADDRESSES as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to Colleen Rizy, Environmental 
Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS-
6036, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036; [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be directed to: Colleen Rizy, Environmental Sciences Division, 
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, MS-6036, Oak Ridge, TN 
37831-6036; [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains:
    (1) OMB No. New.
    (2) Information Collection Request Title: National Evaluation of 
the United States Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and 
Conservation Block Grant Program.
    (3) Type of Request: New.
    (4) Purpose: DOE is conducting an evaluation of EECBG, a national 
program providing over $2.7 billion in grants to approximately 2,350 
cities, counties, States, territories, and Indian Tribes. Grants could 
be used for energy efficiency and conservation efforts, building code 
support, renewable energy installations, distributed energy 
technologies, transportation activities, recycling and waste management 
efforts, and other activities approved by DOE.
    The EECBG Program, authorized in Title V, Subtitle E of the Energy 
Independence and Security Act (EISA)

[[Page 8853]]

and signed into law on December 19, 2007, was funded, for the first 
time, by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The 
Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Formula Grants was issued on 
June 25, 2009 and closed on June 25, 2010.
    The scope of the National Evaluation of EECBG involves a 
combination of careful reviews of grant status reports and applications 
(``engineering desk reviews''), conversations with DOE project 
officers, and in-depth interviews with grant managers to assemble 
critical data for answering the three questions of interest:
    1. What is the total magnitude of energy and cost savings, and 
other key outcomes, such as gross carbon emissions reduction and the 
net number of jobs created or retained, achieved in Broad Program Areas 
that cumulatively account for approximately 80 percent of total Formula 
Grant expenditures in the 2009-2011 program years?
    2. What is the magnitude of outcomes achieved by each of the most 
heavily-funded Broad Program Areas within the EECBG portfolio?
    3. What are the key factors influencing the magnitude of EECBG 
outcomes?
    These questions will be answered by evaluating a sample of 350 
grant activity examples from a pool of direct grants and State sub-
grants, all issued as part of the EECBG program.

Scale of the Information Collection

    The DOE Formula grants are well-defined and have been further 
scrutinized by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)/DOE and its 
contractors for categorization into Broad Program Areas and activities. 
The evaluation team will complete the process of counting and 
categorizing the State sub-grants. From these combined lists of grants, 
sorted by Broad Program Area, sub-area, and activity, and from a set of 
criteria developed by ORNL/DOE and its contractors, a sampling approach 
will be applied to select 350 grants for study. That random sample of 
projects will be taken from the six Broad Program Areas that, in 
combination, account for over 80 percent of total EECBG Formula Grant 
expenditures, which will allow valid inferences to be drawn for each 
Broad Program Area examined.
    Data collection will begin with a combination of careful reviews of 
DOE program databases, grant status reports and applications 
(``engineering desk reviews''), and conversations with DOE project 
officers and Regional and State Coordinators. After this extensive 
preliminary data collection effort, interviews will be conducted with 
grant program managers and grant project managers for each sample 
point. The two survey instruments proposed are:
    1. Grant Activity-Level Contact Survey: Verifies activities 
performed, measures installed, measure level data, and other relevant 
project information necessary to calculate program impacts and other 
metrics.
    There will be 2 versions of this survey instrument: One for grant 
activities targeted to residential dwellings, and one for non-
residential buildings.
    2. Performance Indicators Survey: Collects information regarding 
operational success factors to be combined with grant data and 
secondary data on economic and other external factors for determining 
what conditions and elements are necessary for a successful project.
    Together, these surveys will involve 700 respondents and entail a 
total burden of 642 hours. This calculation is based on the assumption 
that the telephone surveys used in this study will require an average 
of 55 minutes, depending on the individual survey instrument.
    This evaluation approach will not include any data collection from 
individual service recipients to estimate savings or outcomes. This 
study will use data from the above-mentioned interviews plus additional 
information that can be obtained from program records and secondary 
sources, as well as engineering-based analytical methods, to produce 
energy savings and outcome estimates.
    The above-described data collection instruments will be 
supplemented by additional records research and database review 
activities provided by the Grant Program Managers and Local Grant 
Activity Managers. These general recordkeeping activities will require 
an estimated 487 hours. Combining the burden hours associated with 
telephone surveys (642 hours) with the burden hours associated with 
general records review (487 hours) produces a total estimated burden of 
1,129 hours.
    Two key steps are being taken to avoid duplicating the efforts of 
any concurrent evaluations of EECBG activities: (1) Identifying results 
from any EECBG grant evaluation efforts taking place at the State 
level; and (2) coordinating with the Better Buildings Program 
evaluation concerning any data collection already taking place during 
the same time period that addresses EECBG grant activities.
    The sample selection of Broad Program Areas and specific 
programmatic activities within each Broad Program Area is scheduled to 
be completed by June 2012. Data collection and calculation of outcomes 
are scheduled to be completed by October 2012.
    The detailed study design and work plan for the EECBG evaluation 
has been available for public review since January 2012 at http://weatherization.ornl.gov/eecbg.shtml.
    (5) Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 700.
    (6) Annual Estimated Number of Total Responses: 700.
    (7) Annual Estimated Total Number of Burden Hours (Interview and 
Record Review): 1,129.

    Statutory Authority:  Title V, Subtitle E of the Energy 
Independence and Security Act of 2007, codified at 42 U.S.C. 17151-
17158.

    Issued in Washington, DC on February 1, 2012.
Henry C. Kelly,
Acting Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
[FR Doc. 2012-3535 Filed 2-14-12; 8:45 am]
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