[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 106 (Monday, June 5, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25783-25784]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-11547]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Request for Information (RFI): Review of Draft Version of DOE 
Energy-Water Nexus State Policy Database

AGENCY: Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (EPSA), Department 
of Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice of request for information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) gives notice of a Request for 
Information (RFI): ``Review of Draft Version of DOE Energy-Water Nexus 
State Policy Database.'' This RFI seeks review and feedback from 
stakeholders on the draft version of the DOE Energy-Water Nexus State 
Policy Database, including over 1,700 state-level water policies that 
affect energy systems. The database is being developed by DOE's Office 
of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (DOE-EPSA). The draft or ``beta'' 
version of the database is presented as a web tool at http://energywaterpolicy.org. Categories of policies in the database include 
surface water rights; groundwater rights; water discharge regulations 
for power plant cooling water effluent, stormwater, and wastewater from 
oil and gas production; Underground Injection Control (UIC) program 
regulations; state water plans; regional watershed commissions; 
reservoir and river operations; and integrated energy and water 
policies. The goals of the database are to facilitate improved policy 
analysis, modeling, visualization, and communication by states, 
industry, utilities, academia, federal agencies, and other 
stakeholders.

DATES: Written comments and information are requested on or before 
August 4, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments, which 
must be submitted electronically to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
may be sent to Samuel Bockenhauer, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of 
Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., 
Washington, DC 20585. Email: [email protected]. Phone: 
(202) 586-9016.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Present-day energy and water systems are in many cases 
interconnected. Water is used in most phases of energy production and 
electricity generation. Energy is required to extract, convey, and 
deliver water of appropriate quality for diverse human uses, and then 
again to treat wastewaters prior to their return to the environment. 
Historically, energy and water systems have been developed, managed, 
and regulated independently and without significant acknowledgement of 
the connections between them. The energy and water policy landscape is 
thus highly fragmented, which can make it difficult for industry, 
utilities, government, and other stakeholder groups to effectively 
balance energy and water goals.
    Furthermore, much of the authority for water policy lies at the 
level of individual states. For example, allocation of water rights and 
permitting for water discharge are managed primarily at the state 
level. The particularly complex and fragmented nature of water policies 
affecting energy systems, as well as their variation across different 
states, suggests that a centralized, public database of water policies 
affecting energy systems could enable enhanced policy analysis, 
modeling, visualization, and communication by states, industry, 
utilities, academia, federal agencies, and other stakeholders.

Purpose

    The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, 
utilities, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and 
other stakeholders on the draft version of the Energy-Water Nexus State 
Policy Database available at http://energywaterpolicy.org. Regarding 
the draft version of the Energy-Water Nexus State Policy Database, 
neither the United States Government nor any

[[Page 25784]]

agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of their 
contractors, subcontractors or their employees, makes any warranty, 
express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility 
for the accuracy, completeness, or any third party's use or the results 
of such use of any information, apparatus, product, or process 
disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately 
owned rights. Reference in the draft version of the Energy-Water Nexus 
State Policy Database to any specific commercial product, process, or 
service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not 
necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or 
favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof or its 
contractors or subcontractors. This RFI is solely an effort to gather 
information from stakeholders to help inform DOE-EPSA on whether a 
finalized version of such a database would be useful and how it might 
be designed.

Request for Information Categories and Questions

    DOE is particularly interested in receiving comments and data on 
the following:
    1. Quality and Completeness of Information. Are the policy 
descriptions accurate and complete? Are they current? Are the key 
functional pieces of the policy easily accessible? What additional 
information would be useful? How could the descriptions be streamlined? 
What other policies should be included?
    2. Functionality. How could the functionality be improved in areas 
such as user interface, search functionality, sorting functionality, 
site structure, etc.?
    3. Uses. How might you or your organization use the database? What 
key important questions could the database help to answer? What 
visualizations might you or your organization consider using the 
database to develop?
    4. Connection to Other Data Sources or Initiatives. Are there other 
data sources in industry, government, academia, or other sectors that 
could be connected to this database? If so, what are these data sets 
and how might they be beneficially connected or coordinated with the 
database?
    5. Users. Which stakeholder groups--including groups in industry, 
government, academia, etc.--might find the database most useful and for 
what purpose?
    6. Maintenance. How should policy developments be tracked and at 
what frequency to keep the database current and useful?

Request for Information Response Guidelines

    Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to 
[email protected] no later than 11:59 p.m. (ET) on August 4, 
2017. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is 
recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be 
compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses must be 
provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) or Microsoft Excel (.xslx) 
attachment to the email. Only electronic responses will be accepted.
    Please identify your answers by responding to a specific question 
or topic if applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few 
questions as they wish. DOE-EPSA will not respond to individual 
submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. A response 
to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment to develop or 
pursue the project or ideas discussed.
    Respondents are requested to provide the following information at 
the start of their response to this RFI:
     Company/institution name;
     Company/institution contact;
     Contact's address, phone number, and email address.

Confidential Business Information

    Pursuant to 10 CFR 1004.11, any person submitting information that 
he or she believes to be confidential and exempt by law from public 
disclosure should submit via email two well-marked copies: One copy of 
the document marked ``confidential'' including all the information 
believed to be confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-
confidential'' with the information believed to be confidential 
deleted. DOE will make its own determination about the confidential 
status of the information and treat it according to its determination.
    Factors of interest to DOE when evaluating requests to treat 
submitted information as confidential include: (1) A description of the 
items; (2) whether and why such items are customarily treated as 
confidential within the industry; (3) whether the information is 
generally known by or available from other sources; (4) whether the 
information has previously been made available to others without 
obligation concerning its confidentiality; (5) an explanation of the 
competitive injury to the submitting person that would result from 
public disclosure; (6) when such information might lose its 
confidential character due to the passage of time; and (7) why 
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on May 9, 2017.
Carol Battershell,
Acting Director, Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2017-11547 Filed 6-2-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P