[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 26, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4012-4014]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-01519]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. IC22-2-000]


Commission Information Collection Activities (Ferc-549c) Comment 
Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of information collection and request for comments.

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[[Page 4013]]

SUMMARY: In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission or 
FERC) is soliciting public comment on the currently approved 
information collection, FERC-549C, (Standards for Business Practices of 
Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines), which will be submitted to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.

DATES: Comments on the collection of information are due February 25, 
2022.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments on FERC-549C to OMB through 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission Desk Officer. Please identify the OMB Control Number (1902-
0174) in the subject line of your comments. Comments should be sent 
within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
    Please submit copies of your comments to the Commission. You may 
submit copies of your comments (identified by Docket No. IC22-2-000) by 
one of the following methods: Electronic filing through http://www.ferc.gov, is preferred.
     Electronic Filing: Documents must be filed in acceptable 
native applications and print-to-PDF, but not in scanned or picture 
format.
     For those unable to file electronically, comments may be 
filed by USPS mail or by hand (including courier) delivery.
    [cir] Mail via U.S. Postal Service Only: Addressed to: Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission, Secretary of the Commission, 888 First 
Street NE, Washington, DC 20426.
    [cir] Hand (including courier) Delivery: Deliver to: Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, MD 20852.
    Instructions: OMB submissions must be formatted and filed in 
accordance with submission guidelines at www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Using the search function under the ``Currently Under Review'' 
field, select Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; click ``submit,'' 
and select ``comment'' to the right of the subject collection.
    FERC submissions must be formatted and filed in accordance with 
submission guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov. For user assistance, 
contact FERC Online Support by email at [email protected], or 
by phone at: (866) 208-3676 (toll-free).
    Docket: Users interested in receiving automatic notification of 
activity in this docket or in viewing/downloading comments and 
issuances in this docket may do so at https://www.ferc.gov/ferc-online/overview.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Brown may be reached by email at 
[email protected], telephone at (202) 502-8663.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

1. FERC-549C

    Title: FERC-549C, Standards for Business Practices of Interstate 
Natural Gas Pipelines.
    OMB Control No.: 1902-0174.
    Type of Request: Three-year extension of the FERC-549C information 
collection requirements with no changes to the current reporting 
requirements. No comments were received on the 60 day notice published 
on November 15, 2021 (86 FR 63010).
    Abstract: The business practice standards under FERC-549C are 
required to carry out the Commission's policies in accordance with the 
general authority in sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 16, and 20 of the 
Natural Gas Act (NGA),\1\ and sections 311, 501, and 504 of the Natural 
Gas Policy Act of 1978 (NGPA).\2\ The Commission adopted these business 
practice standards in order to update and standardize the natural gas 
industry's business practices and procedures in addition to improving 
the efficiency of the gas market and the means by which the gas 
industry conducts business across the interstate pipeline grid. In 
various orders since 1996, the Commission has adopted regulations to 
standardize the business practices and communication methodologies of 
interstate natural gas pipelines proposed by the North American Energy 
Standards Board (NAESB) in order to create a more integrated and 
efficient pipeline industry.\3\ Generally, when and if NAESB-proposed 
standards (e.g., consensus standards developed by the Wholesale Gas 
Quadrant (WGQ) \4\) are approved by the Commission, the Commission 
incorporates them by reference into its approval. The process of 
standardizing business practices in the natural gas industry began with 
a Commission initiative to standardize electronic communication of 
capacity release transactions. The outgrowth of the initial Commission 
standardization efforts produced working groups composed of all 
segments of the natural gas industry. The Gas Industry Standards Board 
(GISB) is a consensus organization open to all members of the gas 
industry was created. GISB was succeeded by NAESB.
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    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 717c-717w.
    \2\ 15 U.S.C. 3301-3432.
    \3\ This series of orders began with the Commission's issuance 
of Standards for Business Practices of Interstate Natural Gas 
Pipelines, Order No. 587, FERC Stats. & Regs. ] 31,038 (1996).
    \4\ An accredited standards organization under the auspices of 
the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
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    NAESB is a voluntary non-profit organization comprised of members 
from the retail and wholesale natural gas and electric industries. 
NAESB's mission is to take the lead in developing standards across 
these industries to simplify and expand electronic communication and to 
streamline business practices. NAESB's core objective is to facilitate 
a seamless North American marketplace for natural gas, as recognized by 
its customers, the business community, industry participants, and 
regulatory bodies.
    NAESB has divided its efforts among four quadrants including two 
retail quadrants, a wholesale electric quadrant, and the WGQ. The NAESB 
WGQ standards are a product of this effort. Industry participants 
seeking additional or amended standards (to include principles, 
definitions, standards, data elements, process descriptions, and 
technical implementation instructions) must submit a request to the 
NAESB office, detailing the change, so that the appropriate process may 
take place to amend the standards. Failure to collect the FERC-549C 
data would prevent the Commission from monitoring and properly 
evaluating pipeline transactions and/or meeting statutory obligations 
under both the NGA and NGPA.
    On August 17, 2020, NAESB filed a report informing the Commission 
that it had adopted and ratified WGQ Version 3.2 of its business 
practice standards applicable to interstate natural gas pipelines. 
Version 3.2 of the WGQ includes business practice standards developed 
and modified in response to industry requests and directives from the 
NAESB Board of Directors. This version also includes the standards 
developed in response to the recommendations of Sandia National 
Laboratory (Sandia),\5\ which in 2019 issued a cybersecurity surety 
assessment of the NAESB standards sponsored by DOE (Sandia Surety 
Assessment),\6\ and

[[Page 4014]]

the standards developed to enable the use of distributed ledger 
technologies when transacting the NAESB Base Contract for Sale and 
Purchase of Natural Gas. The NAESB report identifies all the changes 
made to the WGQ Version 3.1 Standards and summarizes the deliberations 
that led to the changes being made. It also identifies changes to the 
existing standards that were considered but not adopted due to a lack 
of consensus or other reasons.
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    \5\ Sandia is a multidisciplinary national laboratory and 
federally funded research and development center for the U.S. 
Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security 
Administration that supports numerous federal, state, and local 
government agencies, companies, and organizations.
    \6\ In April 2017, NAESB announced that Sandia, through funding 
provided by DOE, would be performing a surety assessment of the 
NAESB standards. As determined by Sandia and DOE, the purpose of the 
surety assessment was to analyze cybersecurity elements within the 
standards, focusing on four areas: (1) The NAESB Certification 
Program for Accredited Certification Authorities, including the 
Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ)-012 Public Key Infrastructure 
Business Practice Standards, the NAESB Accreditation Requirements 
for Authorized Certificate Authorities, and the Authorized 
Certification Authority Process; (2) the WEQ Open Access Same-Time 
Information Systems suite of standards; (3) the WGQ and Retail 
Markets Quadrant internet Electronic Transport (IET) and Quadrant 
Electronic Delivery Mechanism (EDM) Related Standards Manual; and 
(4) a high-level dependency analysis between the gas and electric 
markets to evaluate the different security paradigms the markets 
employ.
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    Type of Respondents: Natural gas pipelines under the jurisdiction 
of NGA and NGPA.
    Estimate of Annual Burden.\7\ The Commission estimates the total 
annual burden and cost for this information collection as follows: \8\
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    \7\ ``Burden'' is the total time, effort, or financial resources 
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or 
provide information to or for a Federal agency. For further 
explanation of what is included in the information collection 
burden, refer to Title 5 Code of Federal Regulations 1320.3.
    \8\ Commission staff estimates that the industry's skill set and 
cost (for wages and benefits) for FERC-549C are approximately the 
same as the Commission's average cost. The FERC 2021 average salary 
plus benefits for one FERC full-time equivalent (FTE) is $180,703/
year (or $87.00/hour) posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 
the Utilities sector (available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics3_221000.htm).

                                     FERC-549C--Standards for Business Practices of Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines
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                                                                                                           Average
                                                                           Average                       burden and     Total annual
                                                          Number of       number of     Total number      cost per      burden hours        Cost per
                                                         respondents    responses per   of responses    response \9\      and total     respondent  ($)
                                                                         respondent                          (4)         annual cost
                                                                  (1)             (2)     (1) * (2) =     (3) * (4) =       (5) / (1)
                                                                                                  (3)             (5)
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Burden from Final Rule RM96-1-42 (NAESB Version 3.2).           59.33               1           59.33       100 hrs.;  5,933.33 hrs.;             $9,407
                                                                                                               $9,407     $558,148.35
Standards for Business Practices of Interstate                    165            2.96             490        96 hrs.;    47,040 hrs.;         $26,818.50
 Natural Gas Pipelines...............................                                                       $9,030.72   $4,425,052.80
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    Total for FERC-549C..............................  ..............  ..............          549.33  ..............       52,973.33  .................
                                                                                                                                hrs.;
                                                                                                                        $4,983,201.15
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    Comments: Comments are invited on: (1) Whether the collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the Commission, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden and 
cost of the collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility and clarity of the information collection; and (4) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are 
to respond, including the use of automated collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.
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    \9\ The estimated hourly cost (salary plus benefits) provided in 
this section is based on the salary figures for May 2021 posted by 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Utilities sector (available 
at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm#13-0000) and scaled 
to reflect benefits using the relative importance of employer costs 
in employee compensation from June 2021 (available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm). The hourly estimates for 
salary plus benefits are:
    Petroleum Engineer (Occupation Code: 17-2171), $74.20
    Computer Systems Analysts (Occupation Code: 15-1120), $67.99
    Legal (Occupation Code: 23-0000), $142.25
    Economist (Occupation Code: 19-3011), $75.75
    The average hourly cost (salary plus benefits) is calculated 
weighting each of the aforementioned wage categories as follows: 
$74.20 (0.3) + $142.25 (0.3) + $67.99 (0.15) + $75.75 (0.25) = 
$94.07.

    Dated: January 20, 2022.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022-01519 Filed 1-25-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P