[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 12, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14040-14041]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-05403]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC is seeking public comments on its proposal to extend 
through May 31, 2017, the current Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'') 
clearance for information collection requirements contained in the Fuel 
Rating Rule (``Rule''), which will expire on May 31, 2014. DATES: 
Comments must be filed by May 12, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may submit written comments 
electronically or in paper form by following the instructions in the 
Request for Comment part of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section 
below. Write ``Fuel Rating Rule PRA Comment, FTC File No. P144200 on 
your comment and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/fuelratingpra by following the 
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment 
on paper, mail or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113, 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580, in the manner detailed 
in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed information requirements should be addressed to 
Miriam Lederer, Attorney, Division of Enforcement, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room M-8102B, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 
20580, (202) 326-2975.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Fuel Rating Rule, 16 CFR part 306 (OMB 
Control Number: 3084-0068), establishes standard procedures for 
determining, certifying, and disclosing the octane rating of automotive 
gasoline and the automotive fuel rating of alternative liquid 
automotive fuels, as required by the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act. 
15 U.S.C. 2822(a)\1\(c). The Rule also requires refiners, producers, 
importers, distributors, and retailers to retain records showing how 
the ratings were determined, including delivery tickets or letters of 
certification.
    Under the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521, federal agencies must obtain 
approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or 
sponsor. ``Collection of information'' means agency requests or 
requirements that members of the public submit reports, keep records, 
or provide information to a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 
1320.3(c). As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC is 
providing this opportunity for public comment before requesting that 
OMB extend the existing paperwork clearance for the regulations noted 
herein.
    Pursuant to Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC invites 
comments on: (1) Whether the disclosure and recordkeeping requirements 
are necessary, including whether the information will be practically 
useful; (2) the accuracy of our burden estimates, including whether the 
methodology and assumptions used are valid; (3) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information. All 
comments should be filed as prescribed in the ADDRESSES section above, 
and must be received on or before May 12, 2014.
    Estimated annual hours burden \1\ 33,700 total burden hours (13,750 
recordkeeping hours + 19,950 disclosure hours).
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    \1\ Under the Fuel Rating Rule, refiners, producers, importers, 
distributors, and retailers of automotive fuel must retain, for one 
year, records of any delivery tickets, letters of certification, or 
tests upon which they based the automotive fuel ratings that they 
certify or post. See the Fuel Rating Rule's recordkeeping 
requirements, 16 CFR 306.7; 306.9; and 306.11. The term automotive 
fuel includes gasoline and alternative liquid automotive fuels. 16 
CFR 306.0 (i). Therefore, staff derived the number of fuel industry 
members by adding up the number of refiners, producers, importers, 
distributors, and retailers of these types of fuel. Staff consulted 
government agencies and industry sources in estimating a population 
of approximately 165,000 fuel industry members, including 159,597 
retailers of automotive fuel. Some of the government Web sites 
reviewed to update these numbers include: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_cap1_dcu_nus_a.htm (Gasoline Producers); http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/ethanolcapacity/ (Ethanol Producers); http://www.eia.gov/biofuels/biodiesel/production/ (Biodiesel Producers); 
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ (Alternative Fuel Stations); 
http://www.nacsonline.com/YourBusiness/FuelsReports/GasPrices_2014/Documents/2014NACSFuelsReport_full.pdf (Petroleum Stations).

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[[Page 14041]]

    Recordkeeping: Based on industry sources, staff estimates that 
165,000 fuel industry members each incur an average annual burden of 
approximately five minutes to ensure retention of relevant business 
records for the period required by the Rule,\2\ resulting in a total of 
13,750 hours.
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    \2\ Under the Fuel Rating Rule, refiners, producers, importers, 
distributors, and retailers of automotive fuel must retain, for one 
year, records of any delivery tickets, letters of certification, or 
tests upon which they based the automotive fuel ratings that they 
certify or post. See the Fuel Rating Rule's recordkeeping 
requirements, 16 CFR 306.7; 306.9; and 306.11. The term automotive 
fuel includes gasoline and alternative liquid automotive fuels. 16 
CFR 306.0 (i). Staff derived the number of fuel industry members by 
adding the number of refiners, producers, importers, distributors, 
and retailers of these types of fuel. Staff consulted government 
agencies and industry sources in estimating a population of 
approximately 165,000 fuel industry members, including 159,597 
retailers of automotive fuel. Some of the government Web sites 
reviewed to update these numbers include: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_cap1_dcu_nus_a.htm (Gasoline Producers); http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/ethanolcapacity/ (Ethanol Producers); http://www.eia.gov/biofuels/biodiesel/production/ (Biodiesel Producers); 
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ (Alternative Fuel Stations); 
http://www.nacsonline.com/YourBusiness/FuelsReports/GasPrices_2014/Documents/2014NACSFuelsReport_full.pdf (Petroleum Stations).
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    Disclosure: Staff estimates that affected industry members incur an 
average burden of approximately one hour to produce, distribute, and 
post octane rating labels. Because the labels are durable, only about 
one of every eight industry member retailers (19,950 of 159,597 
industry member retailers) incur this burden each year, resulting in a 
total annual burden of 19,950 hours.
    Estimated annual labor costs: $364,207.
    Labor costs are derived by applying appropriate hourly cost figures 
to the burden hours described above. Here, the average hourly wages of 
producers, distributors, and importers is $30.56.\3\ The average hourly 
wages of retailers is $10.54.\4\ The recordkeeping component is 
approximately 450 hours for producers, distributors, and importers and 
13,300 hours for retailers. Thus, the total recordkeeping component has 
a combined annual labor cost of $153,934 ((450 hours x $30.56) + 
(13,300 hours x $10.54)). The disclosure component is approximately 
19,950 hours for retailers, therefore, the total disclosure component 
has an annual labor cost of $210,273.
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    \3\ See http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag211.htm#earnings (Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, December 2013 Current Employment Statistics, 
Average Hourly Earnings for Oil and Gas Extraction Production and 
Nonsupervisory Employees).
    \4\ See http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag447.htm (Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, December 2013 Current Employment Statistics, Average 
Hourly Earnings for Gasoline Station Production and Nonsupervisory 
Employees).
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    Estimated annual non-labor costs: $39,000.
    Staff believes that the Rule does not impose any capital costs for 
producers, importers, or distributors of fuels. Retailers, however, 
incur the cost of procuring and replacing fuel dispenser labels to 
comply with the Rule. Staff conservatively estimates that the price per 
automotive fuel label is two dollars and that the average automotive 
fuel retailer has six dispensers.\5\ In addition, staff has previously 
estimated the useful life of dispenser labels to range from 6 to 10 
years. Applying 8 years, the mean of that range, and distributing the 
costs on a per-year basis, staff estimates the total annual replacement 
labeling cost to be $39,899 (159,597 retailers x 1/8 x $2.00).
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    \5\ See 75 FR 12,470, 12,477 (Mar. 16, 2010) (proposed 
rulemaking) (estimating the price range per pump to be one to two 
dollars).
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    Request for Comment: You can file a comment online or on paper. For 
the Commission to consider your comment, we must receive it on or 
before May 12, 2014. Write ``Fuel Rating Rule PRA Comment, FTC File No. 
P144200 on your comment. Your comment--including your name and your 
state--will be placed on the public record of this proceeding, 
including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission Web 
site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of 
discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact 
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web 
site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number, 
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification 
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial 
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive health information, like medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which is obtained from any person and which is privileged or 
confidential,'' as provided in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 
46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2). In particular, do 
not include competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales 
statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing 
processes, or customer names.
    If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential 
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for 
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained 
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\6\ Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel grants your request in 
accordance with the law and the public interest.
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    \6\ In particular, the written request for confidential 
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and 
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions 
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/fuelratingpra, by following the instructions on the web-based form. 
If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also 
may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Fuel Rating Rule PRA 
Comment, FTC File No. P144200 on your comment and on the envelope, and 
mail or deliver it to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, 
Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue 
NW., Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit your paper comment to 
the Commission by courier or overnight service.
    The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers permit 
the collection of public comments to consider and use in this 
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and 
responsive public comments that it receives on or before May 12, 2014. 
You can find more information, including routine uses permitted by the 
Privacy Act, in the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

David C. Shonka,
Principal Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2014-05403 Filed 3-11-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P