[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 9, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32731-32732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-14548]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Codes, Standards, Specifications, and Other Guidance for 
Enhancing the Resilience of Oil and Natural Gas Infrastructure Systems 
Against Severe Weather Events

AGENCY: Office of Electricity, Department of Energy (DOE).

ACTION: Notice of request for information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: Many oil and natural gas companies, pipeline operators, fuel 
distribution and delivery firms, and other owners and operators of oil 
and natural gas infrastructure, as well as the government agencies that 
regulate them in some respect, are seeking cost-effective ways to make 
these infrastructure systems more resilient against cyber and physical 
threats as well as severe weather events. The purpose of this RFI is to 
gather ``relevant consensus-based codes, specifications, and 
standards'' \1\ and other pertinent materials to provide guidance for 
enhancing the physical and operational resilience of these systems and 
their components against such events. Gathering this information will 
enable existing expert knowledge on this subject to be synthesized and 
made broadly available to interested policy officials and other 
decision-makers. In addition, this information may aid the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency in its implementation of the Disaster 
Recovery Reform Act of 2018, as well as other federal efforts to 
enhance resilience. Organizing existing knowledge in this way will also 
help identify important information gaps that can then be addressed 
through targeted research and development activities and through 
emergency preparedness actions by government agencies and the private 
sector.
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    \1\ The Disaster Recovery Reform Act, which was signed into law 
on October 5, 2018 as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 
(Pub. L. 115-254), includes several references ``to relevant 
consensus-based codes, specifications, and standards,'' including in 
sections 1234 and 1235.
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    The U.S. Department of Energy also supports actions to enhance the 
weather-related resilience of other domestic energy infrastructure, 
particularly electric grids. A parallel RFI will be issued to gather 
analogous resilience information pertinent to the electric sector.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 23, 2019.

ADDRESSES: 
    Email: Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments 
electronically, to

[[Page 32732]]

[email protected], with ``Guidance for Enhancing Oil and 
Natural Gas Resilience'' in the subject line. Comments, data, and other 
information submitted to DOE electronically should be provided in PDF, 
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, WordPerfect, or text (ASCII) file 
format. The information received in response to this RFI may be used to 
structure future DOE programs and will be available to the public. 
Respondents are strongly advised not to include any document or 
information that might be considered commercially- or business-
sensitive, proprietary, confidential, critical electric infrastructure 
information, or classified for reasons of national security. 
Submissions are to be written in English, be free of any defects or 
viruses, and without special characters or any form of encryption.
    U.S. Mail to: U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave. SW, 
Mailstop OE-20, Washington, DC 20585, Attn: Office of Electricity, 
Guidance for Enhancing Oil and Natural Gas Resilience.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Meyer, U.S. Department of 
Energy, Office of Electricity, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, 
DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (202) 586-3876. Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Concern among government agencies, 
utilities, and the public about the risks presented by more frequent 
and more severe weather events has led to widespread discussion about 
how to make oil and natural gas infrastructure systems more resilient 
against such hazards, and how to do so effectively and at reasonable 
cost. This is challenging to do. Although these industries and agencies 
have been working for several years to develop a culture of resilience, 
at present there is no settled body of expert knowledge about 
requirements and practices for enhancing the resilience of these 
systems.
    The specific purpose of this RFI is to gather available information 
on current consensus-based codes, specifications, standards, and less 
formal forms of guidance for improving the resilience of all forms of 
oil and natural gas infrastructure against severe weather events, with 
respect to both the design and operation of these systems. The 
information of interest ranges from (1) specific technical design 
standards or requirements for physical system components; (2) relevant 
corporate business practices, e.g., ``oil and natural gas companies 
should designate a senior corporate officer responsible for the 
development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of a company-wide 
resilience strategy''; and (3) analytic methods and tools for 
estimating the possible economic benefits from strategies, investments, 
or initiatives to enhance the resilience of relevant facilities.
    DOE anticipates using this information to catalogue and synthesize 
a body of existing expert knowledge about how best to enhance the 
resilience of these systems cost-effectively. Accordingly, it is 
important for respondents to supplement specific standards, 
requirements, or practices with the rationale(s) relied on in 
developing them and justifying their use.
    DOE also notes safety and reliability standards pertinent to these 
systems have been developed by the oil and natural gas industries and 
promulgated by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and 
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and some of these standards 
have implications and benefits for system resilience. These standards 
are generally well-documented, and DOE suggests respondents cite them 
where appropriate by reference only; submission of more detailed 
information is not needed.
    Regarding state- or locally-adopted codes and standards that have 
resilience implications, or for less well-documented requirements or 
practices, DOE has the following questions:
    (a) Scope and applicability--for any given requirement or practice, 
what hazard (or hazards) is the measure intended to mitigate or make 
the system less vulnerable against, and for which sector(s) or 
component(s) of the system is the practice relevant? Does the 
requirement establish a design threshold, e.g., ``design to withstand 
150 mph wind stress,'' or identify appropriate hazard maps, e.g., flood 
plain maps, or maps of wind zones?
    (b) Origins--how or by whom was the requirement or practice 
developed, and did the process provide for consensus, openness, 
transparency, balanced decision-making, due process, or an appeal 
process? Could the chosen development used be applied to unmet needs in 
other oil or natural gas resilience contexts?
    (c) Validation--has the requirement or practice been widely tested? 
Note: DOE recognizes that worthwhile practices for improving resilience 
may exist that are not presently consensus-based, and therefore asks 
respondents to include information about such practices, and whether 
further testing or refinements would make them more broadly applicable.
    (d) Are there other important caveats, not mentioned earlier, about 
the requirement or practice that should be considered?
    Interested parties are encouraged to submit comments and 
information on matters discussed in this SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 
section, in writing and by the date specified in the DATES section of 
this notice. All comments received will be posted without change to 
http://www.regulations.gov.
    Please do not submit to the RFI information for which disclosure is 
restricted by statute, such as trade secrets and commercial or 
financial information (Confidential Business Information (CBI)). 
Comments submitted to the RFI email address cannot be claimed as CBI, 
and submission waives any such claims. DOE plans to make all 
information received in response to this RFI available to the public.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2019.
Bruce J. Walker,
Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2019-14548 Filed 7-8-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P