[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 35 (Thursday, February 21, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12138-12140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-03950]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2013-0019]


Greenkraft Inc.; Receipt of Application for Temporary Exemption 
From FMVSS No. 108

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of receipt of petition for a temporary exemption from 
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108, Lamps, 
Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the procedures in 49 CFR Part 555, 
Greenkraft, Inc. has applied for a temporary exemption for its 1061 and 
1082 model trucks from the requirements of paragraph S7 of FMVSS No. 
108 applicable to headlamps. The basis of the application is that the 
exemption would make development or field evaluation of a low-emission 
vehicle easier without unreasonably lowering the safety performance of 
the vehicle.
    NHTSA is publishing this notice of receipt of the application in 
accordance with the requirements of 49 U.S.C. 30113(b)(2), and has made 
no judgment on the merits of the application.

DATES: You should submit your comments not later than March 25, 2013.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Healy, Office of the Chief 
Counsel, NCC-112, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 
New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building 4th Floor, Room W41-212, 
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-2992; Fax: (202) 366-3820.
    Comments: We invite you to submit comments on the application 
described above. You may submit comments identified by the docket 
number at the heading of this notice by any of the following methods:
     Web Site: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments on the electronic docket site by 
clicking

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on ``Help and Information'' or ``Help/Info.''
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Mail: U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket 
Operations, M-30, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, 
DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building 
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without 
change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal 
information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion below. We 
will consider all comments received before the close of business on the 
comment closing date indicated above. To the extent possible, we will 
also consider comments filed after the closing date.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to 
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 
Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays. Telephone: (202) 366-9826.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit 
http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
    Confidential Business Information: If you wish to submit any 
information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit three 
copies of your complete submission, including the information you claim 
to be confidential business information, to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA, 
at the address given under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. In 
addition, you should submit two copies, from which you have deleted the 
claimed confidential business information, to Docket Management at the 
address given above. When you send a comment containing information 
claimed to be confidential business information, you should include a 
cover letter setting forth the information specified in our 
confidential business information regulation (49 CFR Part 512).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Statutory Basis for Temporary Exemptions

    The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act), 
codified as 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301, authorizes the Secretary of 
Transportation to exempt, on a temporary basis and under specified 
circumstances, motor vehicles from a motor vehicle safety standard or 
bumper standard. This authority is set forth at 49 U.S.C. 30113. The 
Secretary has delegated the authority in this section to NHTSA.
    NHTSA established 49 CFR part 555, Temporary Exemption from Motor 
Vehicle Safety and Bumper Standards, to implement the statutory 
provisions concerning temporary exemptions. A vehicle manufacturer 
wishing to obtain an exemption from a standard must demonstrate in its 
application (A) that an exemption would be in the public interest and 
consistent with the Safety Act and (B) that the manufacturer satisfies 
one of the following four bases for an exemption: (i) Compliance with 
the standard would cause substantial economic hardship to a 
manufacturer that has tried to comply with the standard in good faith; 
(ii) the exemption would make easier the development or field 
evaluation of a new motor vehicle safety feature providing a safety 
level at least equal to the safety level of the standard; (iii) the 
exemption would make the development or field evaluation of a low-
emission motor vehicle easier and would not unreasonably lower the 
safety level of that vehicle; or (iv) compliance with the standard 
would prevent the manufacturer from selling a motor vehicle with an 
overall safety level at least equal to the overall safety level of 
nonexempt vehicles.
    For an exemption petition to be granted on the basis that the 
exemption would make the development or field evaluation of a low-
emission motor vehicle easier and would not unreasonably lower the 
safety level of the vehicle, the petition must include specified 
information set forth at 49 CFR 555.6(c). The main requirements of that 
section include: (1) Substantiation that the vehicle is a low-emission 
vehicle; (2) documentation establishing that a temporary exemption 
would not unreasonably degrade the safety of a vehicle; (3) 
substantiation that a temporary exemption would facilitate the 
development or field evaluation of the vehicle; (4) a statement of 
whether the petitioner intends to conform to the standard at the end of 
the exemption period; and (5) a statement that not more than 2,500 
exempted vehicles will be sold in the United States in any 12-month 
period for which an exemption may be granted.

II. Greenkraft's Petition

    Greenkraft is petitioning the agency for a temporary exemption from 
the provisions in FMVSS No. 108 applicable to headlamp photometry on 
the basis that ``the exemption would make the development or field 
evaluation of a low-emission motor vehicle easier and would not 
unreasonably lower the safety level of that vehicle.'' 49 U.S.C. 
30113(b)(3)(B)(iii). The agency received Greenkraft's petition October 
24, 2012. Greenkraft has requested that, if granted, the exemption 
period begin immediately.
    Greenkraft plans to produce trucks that run on compressed natural 
gas engines with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of over 14,000 
pounds under the requested exemption. Greenkraft is requesting a three-
year exemption and plans to produce 2,300 vehicles during the exemption 
period. Greenkraft states in the petition that it plans to comply with 
FMVSS No. 108 at the end of the exemption period.

A. Low Emission Vehicle

    In order to be eligible for a temporary exemption on the grounds 
that the exemption would make development or field evaluation of a low-
emission vehicle easier without unreasonably lowering the safety 
performance of the vehicle, the applicant must substantiate that the 
vehicle is a low-emission vehicle. In order to qualify as a low-
emission vehicle, the vehicle must meet the applicable standards for 
new motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7521, et seq. and 
emit an air pollutant in an amount significantly below one of those 
standards. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations 
issued pursuant to the Clean Air Act establish exhaust emissions 
thresholds for heavy-duty low-emission vehicles. These exhaust emission 
thresholds require that a heavy duty low emission vehicle emit combined 
emissions of oxides of nitrogen and nonmethane hydrocarbons (or 
nonmethane hydrocarbon equivalent) of 3.8 grams or less per brake 
horsepower-hour or combined emissions of oxides of nitrogen and 
nonmethane hydrocarbons (or nonmethane hydrocarbon equivalent) of 3.5 
grams or less per brake horsepower-hour when tested (certified) on fuel

[[Page 12140]]

meeting the specifications of California certification fuel. 40 CFR 
88.105-94.
    Greenkraft submitted a certification from the California 
Environmental Protection Agency's Air Resources Board to substantiate 
that the vehicle that is the subject of the application is a low 
emissions vehicle. The Air Resources Board certification states that 
the vehicle's combined emissions of oxides of nitrogen and nonmethane 
hydrocarbons are 0.13 grams per brake horsepower-hour.

B. Statement That a Temporary Exemption Would Not Unreasonably Degrade 
Safety

    The requirements from which Greenkraft seeks a temporary exemption 
are the Upper Beam 3 requirements in Table XVIII and Lower 
Beam 3V requirements in Table XIX-b. Greenkraft states in its 
application for a temporary exemption that the only difference between 
Greenkraft's low-emission vehicle if exempted and a compliant vehicle 
is that the headlamps on Greenkraft's low-emission vehicle fail to meet 
the minimum candela requirements for two upper beam test points and six 
lower beam test points and exceeds the maximum candela requirement for 
one upper beam test point for visually/optically aimed headlamps. 
Greenkraft attached to its application for an exemption a test report 
from a test laboratory showing that the headlamps on the vehicles that 
would be the subject of the exemption fail to meet the upper and lower 
beam requirements for optically and visually aimed headlamps. 
Greenkraft states in the application that granting the exemption would 
not unreasonably degrade the safety of the vehicle because the lamps 
provide ``excellent illumination'' even though they do not comply with 
the photometric requirements of FMVSS No. 108.

C. Substantiation That a Temporary Exemption Would Facilitate the 
Development of a Low Emissions Vehicle

    Greenkraft states that a temporary exemption would facilitate the 
development of low-emission vehicles by allowing Greenkraft to redesign 
the headlamp without interrupting the development of the vehicle while 
the headlamp is being redesigned. Greenkraft further claims that, by 
beginning development promptly, it can receive critical data and test 
results to further the development of natural gas powered vehicles.

D. Public Interest

    Greenkraft states that granting the temporary exemption would be in 
the public interest because the exemption would help increase the 
availability of low-emission natural gas power vehicles to businesses 
in the United States. Greenkraft states that this would reduce the 
United States' dependence on foreign oil.

III. Issuance of Notice of Final Action

    Upon receiving a petition, NHTSA conducts an initial review of the 
petition with respect to whether the petition is complete and whether 
the petitioner appears to be eligible to apply for the requested 
petition. The agency has tentatively concluded that the petition is 
complete and that the petitioner is eligible to apply for the requested 
exemption. The agency has not made any judgment on the merits of the 
application and is placing a non-confidential copy of the petition in 
the docket.
    We are providing a 30-day comment period. After considering public 
comments and other available information, we will publish a notice of 
final action on the application in the Federal Register.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on February 12, 2013 under authority 
delegated in 49 CFR 1.95.
Christopher J. Bonanti,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
[FR Doc. 2013-03950 Filed 2-20-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P