[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 85 (Tuesday, May 3, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26191-26192]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-09445]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Notice of Request for Information on Formula Grants to States and 
Indian Tribes for Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of 
the Electric Grid

AGENCY: Grid Deployment Office, U.S. Department of Energy.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) invites 
public comment on its request for information (RFI) regarding formula 
grants to be awarded to States and Indian Tribes to support investments 
for preventing outages and enhancing the resilience of the electric 
grid. The purpose of the RFI is to collect stakeholder feedback to 
inform DOE's structuring of such formula grants to States and Indian 
Tribes, with funding made available through a provision of the 
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

DATES: Responses to the RFI must be received by no later than 11:59 
p.m. EDT on June 2, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are to submit questions, comments, and 
responses to the Department's RFI to the following email address: 
[email protected]. Include ``Formula Grants to States and 
Indian Tribes for Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of 
the Electric Grid'' in the subject line of the email. Responses must be 
provided as attachments to an email. Responses must be provided as a 
Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email, and no more than 5 
pages in length, 12-point font, 1-inch margins. If possible, copy and 
paste the RFI sections as a template for your responses. It is 
recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be 
compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Only electronic 
responses will be accepted. The complete RFI document, as well as, 
documents describing DOE's plans for implementing section 40101(d), and 
other pertinent information are available at https://netl.doe.gov/bilhub/grid-resilience/formula-grants.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Comments and questions may also be 
addressed to: Patricia Hoffman, Grid Deployment Office, U.S. Department 
of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585 (202)-586-
6074, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 40101(d) of the Infrastructure 
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (Pub. L. 117-58), codified at 42 U.S.C. 
18711(d), directs the Secretary of Energy (Secretary) to establish a 
formula grant program to provide funds to States \1\ and Indian Tribes 
\2\ to support investments for preventing outages and enhancing the 
resilience of the electric grid. Under section 40101(d), the U.S. 
Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) is authorized to provide 
up to $459 million annually over a five-year period (for Fiscal Years 
2022 through 2026) to States and Indian Tribes according to an award 
formula based on five statutorily defined factors. States and Indian 
Tribes are required to submit annual applications to DOE to receive 
funding.
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    \1\ The term ``States'' includes herein all 50 States, U.S. 
Territories, and the District of Columbia.
    \2\ The term ``Indian Tribe'' herein ``has the meaning given . . 
. in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education 
Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).'' 42 U.S.C. 18701(2).
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    The Department seeks input, in the form of comments and questions, 
from all stakeholders on DOE's plans for implementing section 40101(d), 
including on the application and award requirements, the award formula 
allocation, and the technical assistance approach. Documents that 
provide this information are located at: https://

[[Page 26192]]

netl.doe.gov/bilhub/grid-resilience/formula-grants.
    These documents are:
    1. Section 40101(d) Formula Grant Program Notice of Intent (NOI),
    2. Draft Section 40101(d) Formula Grant Administrative and Legal 
Requirements Document (ALRD), and
    3. Draft Allocation of Funds under the IIJA Section 40101(d)--
Formula Grant Program.
    In addition, the Department would appreciate responses from States 
and Indian Tribes to the following questions:
    1. What are the specific challenges you anticipate with regard to 
providing the Program Narrative outlined in Appendix A of the NOI, if 
any?
    2. What are the areas in which you would most appreciate receiving 
technical assistance? In addition, what approaches for providing 
technical assistance would be most helpful to you? The NOI includes a 
discussion on technical assistance.
    3. What additional data sources are you aware of that may help DOE 
prepare the award formula?
    This is solely a request for information and is not a request for 
applications. DOE is not accepting applications to this RFI, nor will 
DOE reimburse any of respondents' costs in preparing a response.

Proprietary Information

    Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to 
structure future programs and formula grant allocations and/or 
otherwise be made available to the public, respondents are strongly 
advised NOT to include any information in their responses that might be 
considered business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential. 
If, however, a respondent chooses to submit business sensitive, 
proprietary, or otherwise confidential information, it must be clearly 
and conspicuously marked as such in the response. Responses containing 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information must be 
conspicuously marked as described below. Failure to comply with these 
marking requirements may result in the disclosure of the unmarked 
information under the Freedom of Information Act or otherwise. The U.S. 
Federal Government is not liable for the disclosure or use of unmarked 
information and may use or disclose such information for any purpose.
    Confidential, Commercial, and Financial Information. Consistent 
with 10 CFR 1004.11, DOE requires that 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 Commercial and 
Financial Information'' 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. The copy containing 
confidential commercial and financial information must include a cover 
sheet marked as follows identifying the specific pages containing 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information: ``Notice of 
Restriction on Disclosure and Use of Data: Pages [list applicable 
pages] of this response may contain confidential, commercial, or 
financial information that is exempt from public disclosure.'' The 
Government may use or disclose any information that is not 
appropriately marked or otherwise restricted, regardless of source. In 
addition, (1) the header and footer of every page that contains 
confidential, proprietary, or privileged information must be marked as 
follows: ``Contains Confidential, Commercial, or Financial Information 
Exempt from Public Disclosure'' and (2) every line and paragraph 
containing proprietary, privileged, or trade secret information must be 
clearly marked with [[double brackets]] or highlighting.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on April 27, 
2022, by Patricia A. Hoffman, Acting Director of the Grid Deployment 
Office, pursuant to delegated authority from the Secretary of Energy. 
That document with the original signature and date is maintained by 
DOE. For administrative purposes only, and in compliance with 
requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, the undersigned DOE 
Federal Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to sign and submit 
the document in electronic format for publication, as an official 
document of the Department of Energy. This administrative process in no 
way alters the legal effect of this document on publication in the 
Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on April 28, 2022.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2022-09445 Filed 5-2-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P