[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70745-70746]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-28701]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

U.S. Energy Information Administration


Proposed Change to Data Protection

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

ACTION: Notice and Request for Review and Comment.

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SUMMARY: This notice pertains to Forms EIA-3, the Quarterly Coal 
Consumption and Quality Report--Manufacturing and Transformation/
Processing Coal Plants and Commercial and Institutional Coal Users; 
EIA-5, the Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Coke Plants; 
EIA-7A, the Coal Production and Preparation Report--Coal Mines and 
Preparation Plants; and EIA-8A, the Coal Stocks Report--Traders and 
Brokers. DOE's proposed changes will release or publish data received 
from mandatory respondents that is not company identifiable, and does 
not satisfy the criteria for an exemption under the Freedom of 
Information Act or satisfy the requirements of the Trade Secrets Act.
    No changes are proposed for the standby surveys Forms: EIA-1, 
Weekly Coal Monitoring Report--General Industries and Blast Furnaces; 
EIA-4, Weekly Coal Monitoring Report--Coke Plants; EIA-6Q, Quarterly 
Coal Report--Coal Producers and Distributors; and EIA-20, Weekly Coal 
Monitoring Report of Coal Burning Utilities and Independent Power 
Producers.
    Prior to 2011, data reported on Forms EIA-1, EIA-3, EIA-4, EIA-5, 
EIA-6Q, EIA-8A, and EIA-20 were protected to the extent it satisfied 
exemption criteria under the Freedom of Information Act and the Trade 
Secrets Act. Disclosure limitation procedures were applied to all data. 
The data protection policy for Form EIA-7A was similar except that the 
name and address of the responding company, the mine or plant type, and 
location were considered public information.
    Effective January, 2011, EIA changed the data protection policy for 
Forms EIA-3, EIA-5, EIA-7A and EIA-8A from protecting the data as 
described above, to release all data reported in company identifiable 
form with the exception of cost data. Cost data are protected and not 
released in company identifiable form to the extent it satisfies 
exemption criteria under the Freedom of Information Act and the Trade 
Secrets Act. Disclosure limitation procedures (suppression methods) are 
applied to protect against the identifiability of the reported cost 
data. No changes were made to the pre-2011 protection policy for Forms 
EIA-1, EIA-4, EIA-6Q, and EIA-20.
    The U.S. Energy Information Administration proposes to change and 
strengthen the data protection provisions on Forms EIA-3, EIA-5, EIA-7A 
and EIA-8A. Currently, data reported on these forms are not protected 
except for certain selected cost and revenue data elements. For Forms 
EIA-3, EIA-5 and EIA-8A, EIA proposes to protect company information 
reported on these forms from public release in identifiable form to the 
extent it satisfies exemption criteria under the Freedom of Information 
Act and the Trade Secrets Act. However, disclosure limitation 
procedures will not be applied to the State--and regional-level, 
statistical, and quantity data published from these surveys. Thus, 
there may be some statistics that are based on data from fewer than 
three respondents that may affect the identifiability of reported data. 
Disclosure limitation procedures will be applied to cost data reported 
on Forms EIA-3 and EIA-5 and revenue data reported on Forms EIA-7A and 
EIA-8A. With regards to Form EIA-7A only, the name and address of the 
responding company, the mine or plant type, and location will continue 
to be considered public information. These data elements will continue 
to be released in EIA's public use files and will not be protected from 
disclosure in identifiable form when releasing statistical aggregate 
(State-level) information. These data elements are currently released 
on the EIA Web site in the Form EIA-7A public use file, along with 
company identifiable MSHA data, which are also not protected. All other 
information reported on Form EIA-7A will be protected from public 
release in identifiable form to the extent it satisfies exemption 
criteria under the Freedom of Information Act and the Trade Secrets 
Act. All proposed changes to the data protection provisions for Forms 
EIA-3, EIA-5, EIA-7A and EIA-8A will be retroactive and apply to data 
reported for calendar years 2011 and 2012. Applying this change 
retroactively to data reported for 2011 preserves the continuity of 
certain data series and provides continuity for the main components of 
EIA's pre-2011 data protection policy.

DATES: Comments regarding this collection must be received on or before 
December 27, 2012. If you anticipate that you will be submitting 
comments, but find it difficult to do so within the period of time 
allowed by this notice, please advise the EIA-3 Survey Manager at DOE 
of your intention to make a submission as soon as possible. The Survey 
Manager may be telephoned at 202-586-8926 or emailed at 
[email protected].

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to: Attn: Tejasvi Raghuveer, 
EIA-3 Survey Manager, U.S. Energy Information Administration, EI-24, 
1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    EIA-3: (1) OMB No. 1905-0167; (2) Information Collection Request 
Title: Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Manufacturing and 
Transformation/Processing Coal Plants and Commercial and Institutional 
Coal Users; (3) Type of Request: Change to respondent-level protection 
policy and disclosure limitation procedures; (4) Purpose: To collect 
all data elements from Form EIA-3 respondents, to release or publish 
data that is not company identifiable, and does not satisfy the 
criteria for an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act or 
satisfy the requirements of the Trade Secrets Act; (5) Estimated Number 
of

[[Page 70746]]

Respondents Quarterly: 498; (6) Estimated Number of Responses Annually: 
1992; (7) Estimated Number of Burden Hours Annually: 2490 hours; (8) 
Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $166,481.40.
    EIA-5: (1) OMB No. 1905-0167; (2) Information Collection Request 
Title: Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report--Coke Plants; (3) 
Type of Request: Change to respondent-level protection policy and 
disclosure limitation procedures; (4) Purpose: To collect all data 
elements from Form EIA-5 respondents, to release or publish data that 
is not company identifiable, and does not satisfy the criteria for an 
exemption under the Freedom of Information Act or satisfy the 
requirements of the Trade Secrets Act; (5) Estimated Number of 
Respondents Quarterly: 19; (6) Estimated Number of Responses Annually: 
76; (7) Estimated Number of Burden Hours Annually: 114 hours; (8) 
Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $7,622.04.
    EIA-7A: (1) OMB No. 1905-0167; (2) Information Collection Request 
Title: Coal Production and Preparation Report--Coal Mines and 
Preparation Plants; (3) Type of Request: Change to respondent-level 
protection policy and disclosure limitation procedures; (4) Purpose: To 
collect all data elements from Form EIA-7A respondents, to release or 
publish data considered public information (name and address of the 
responding company, the mine or plant type, and location), and does not 
satisfy the criteria for an exemption under the Freedom of Information 
Act or satisfy the requirements of the Trade Secrets Act; (5) Estimated 
Number of Respondents Annually: 1306; (6) Estimated Number of Responses 
Annually: 1306; (7) Estimated Number of Burden Hours Annually: 2350.8; 
(8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: 
$157,174.49.
    EIA-8A: (1) OMB No. 1905-0167; (2) Information Collection Request 
Title: Coal Stocks Report--Traders and Brokers; (3) Type of Request: 
Change to respondent-level protection policy and disclosure limitation 
procedures; (4) Purpose: To collect all data elements from Form EIA-8A 
respondents, to release or publish data that is not company 
identifiable, and does not satisfy the criteria for an exemption under 
the Freedom of Information Act or satisfy the requirements of the Trade 
Secrets Act; (5) Estimated Number of Respondents Annually: 89; (6) 
Estimated Number of Responses Annually: 89; (7) Estimated Number of 
Burden Hours Annually: 89 hours; (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and 
Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $5,950.54.

    Statutory Authority:  15 U.S.C. 772(b), Section 13(b) of the 
Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (FEA Act), Pub. L. 93-275.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on November 20, 2012.
Stephanie Brown,
Director, Statistics and Methods Group, Energy Information 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2012-28701 Filed 11-26-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P