[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 83 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18333-18334]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08684]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Agency Information Collection Activities: Requests for Comments;
Clearance of a New Approval of Information Collection: Carbon
Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)
Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Program
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FAA
invites public comments about our
[[Page 18334]]
intention to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval
for a new information collection. The collection involves a request
that airplane operators subject to the applicability of Annex 16,
Volume IV of the Convention on Civil Aviation (hereinafter the
``Chicago Convention'') submit electronically an Emissions Monitoring
Plan (EMP) and an annual Emissions Report (ER) to the FAA. The
information to be collected is necessary because FAA will use the
information to fulfill the United States' responsibilities under the
Chicago Convention.
DATES: Written comments should be submitted by July 1, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Please send written comments:
By Electronic Docket: www.regulations.gov (Enter docket number into
search field).
By mail: Daniel Williams, Federal Aviation Administration, AEE-400,
800 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20591.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daniel Williams by email at:
[email protected]; phone: 202-267-7988.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of
this information collection, including (a) Whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for FAA's performance; (b) the
accuracy of the estimated burden; (c) ways for FAA to enhance the
quality, utility and clarity of the information collection; and (d)
ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the quality of
the collected information. The agency will summarize and/or include
your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this information
collection.
OMB Control Number: 2120-XXXX.
Title: CORSIA Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV)
Program.
Form Numbers: Not Applicable.
Type of Review: Clearance of a new information collection.
Background: The CORSIA MRV Program is a voluntary program for
certain U.S. air carriers and commercial operators (collectively
referred hereinafter as ``operators'') to submit certain airplane
CO2 emissions data to the FAA to enable the United States to
establish uniformity with ICAO Standards And Recommended Practices
(SARPs) for CORSIA, which were adopted in June 2018, as Annex 16,
Volume IV to the Chicago Convention. The United States supported the
decision to adopt the CORSIA SARPs based on the understanding that
CORSIA is the exclusive market-based measure applying to international
aviation, and that CORSIA will ensure fair and reciprocal commercial
competition by avoiding a patchwork of country- or regionally-based
regulatory measures that are inconsistently applied, bureaucratically
costly, and economically damaging. Furthermore, continued U.S. support
for CORSIA assumes a high level of participation by other countries,
particularly by countries with significant aviation activity, as well
as a final CORSIA package that is acceptable to, and implementable by,
the United States.
Under CORSIA, all ICAO Member States whose airplane operators
undertake international flights will need to develop a MRV system for
CO2 emissions from those international flights starting
January 1, 2019. The FAA's CORSIA MRV Program is intended to be the
United States' MRV system for monitoring, reporting, and verification
of U.S. airplane operator CO2 emissions from international
flights.
Operators that are subject to the applicability of CORSIA will
submit their EMPs and ERs electronically.\1\ Both documents use
Microsoft Excel-based templates and can be transmitted via email or
uploaded to a web portal. EMPs that are submitted by operators will be
used as a collaborative tool between the operator and FAA to document a
given operator's chosen fuel use monitoring procedures. FAA will retain
a copy of the EMP and will share with ICAO a list of operators that
submit EMPs. FAA will not submit any specific EMPs from U.S. operators
to ICAO. Large operators, i.e., those emitting 500,000 metric tons or
more of CO2 per year, will gather data through a ``fuel use
monitoring method.'' Small operators, i.e., those emitting less than
500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, can use a simplified
monitoring method. Annual ERs that are submitted to FAA by operators
and verifiers will be used to document each operators' international
emissions. FAA will use the ERs to calculate aggregated emissions data
for all U.S. operators. FAA will submit the aggregated emissions data
to ICAO to demonstrate U.S. implementation of CORSIA.
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\1\ CORSIA applies to airplane operators that produce annual
CO2 emissions greater than 10,000 tonnes (i.e., 10,000
metric tons) from international flights, excluding emissions from
excluded flights. The following activities are excluded CORSIA:
--Domestic flights;
--Humanitarian, medical, and firefighting operations, including
flight(s) preceding or following a humanitarian, medical, or
firefighting flight provided such flight(s) were conducted with the
same airplane, were required to accomplish the related humanitarian,
medical, or firefighting activities or to reposition thereafter the
airplane for its next activity;
--Operations using an airplane with a maximum certificated take-
off mass equal to or less than 5,700 kg;
--Operations on behalf of the military.
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Respondents: Respondents will be airplane operators subject to the
applicability of Annex 16, Volume IV of the Chicago Convention. From
the outset, FAA expects between 11 and 49 operators to submit an EMP
and ER. Some additional operators could submit an EMP and ER over time
based on their international aviation activities.
Frequency: An EMP is a one-time submission. An ER is an annual
submission.
Estimated Average Burden per Response: FAA expects that filling and
submitting an EMP could take approximately 8 hours. FAA expects that
for operators using a Fuel Use Monitoring Method, the reporting hour
burden could be approximately 43 hours per operator, per year. For
operators using a simplified Monitoring Method, the reporting hour
burden could be approximately 29 hours per operator, per year.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on the above, FAA expects that
the annual submission of an ER could take approximately 29 to 43 hours
for each of the 11 to 49 operators.
Issued in Washington, DC, on April 24, 2019.
Kevin Welsh,
Executive Director, Office of Environment and Energy.
[FR Doc. 2019-08684 Filed 4-29-19; 8:45 am]
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