[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 13 (Friday, January 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3650-3651]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01013]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Western Area Power Administration


Agency Information Collection Extension

AGENCY: Western Area Power Administration, DOE.

ACTION: Submission for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review; 
comment request.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE) has submitted an information 
collection request to the OMB for extension under the provisions of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information collection requests a 
3-year extension of Western Area Power Administration's (WAPA) 
Applicant Profile Data (APD), OMB Control Number 1910-5136. The 
proposed collection is necessary for the proper performance of WAPA's 
functions. WAPA markets a limited amount of Federal hydropower. Due to 
the high demand for WAPA's power, WAPA needs the ability to collect 
information under the information collection request in order to 
evaluate who may receive an allocation of Federal power pursuant to 
specific marketing plans. This APD public process only determines the 
information WAPA will collect in its information collection request. 
The actual allocation of Federal power will be conducted through a 
separate marketing plan process outside the scope of this APD process.

DATES: Comments regarding this collection must be received on or before 
February 20, 2024. If you anticipate that you will be submitting 
comments but find it difficult to do so within the period of time 
allowed by this notice, please advise the OMB Desk Officer of your 
intention to make a submission as soon as possible. The Desk Officer 
may be telephoned at (202) 395-4718.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under Review--Open for 
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please contact Mr. Christopher Magee, 
Records and Information Management Program Manager, Western Area Power 
Administration, PO Box 281213, Lakewood, CO 80228, telephone (720) 962-
7139, or email [email protected]. The proposed APD form is available on 
WAPA's website at https://www.wapa.gov/power-marketing/applicant-profile-data/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This information collection request 
contains: (1) OMB No.: 1910-5136; (2) Information Collection Request 
Title: Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) Applicant Profile Data; 
(3) Type of Review: Renewal; (4) Purpose: WAPA is collecting--and will 
continue

[[Page 3651]]

to collect--the data under its APD to properly perform its function of 
marketing a limited amount of Federal hydropower. The information WAPA 
collects is voluntary. Due to the high demand for WAPA's power and 
limited amount of available power, WAPA will use the information 
collected in the APD--and has used the information collected under the 
current OMB-approved control number--pursuant to its marketing plans, 
to determine an applicant's eligibility for an allocation of Federal 
power. As a result, the information WAPA collects under its APD is both 
necessary and useful.
    WAPA notes the Paperwork Reduction Act is the process whereby WAPA 
obtains approval from OMB to collect information from the public. It is 
a legal requirement WAPA must comply with before requesting an 
interested party submit an application for power. The Paperwork 
Reduction Act process is not the process in which interested parties 
apply for a new allocation of Federal power. The allocation of power 
from WAPA is outside the scope of this process and is completed in a 
separate marketing plan process by each WAPA region, when required; (5) 
Annual Estimated Number of Respondents: 33; (6) Annual Estimated Number 
of Total Responses: 33; (7) Annual Estimated Number of Burden Hours: 
248; and (8) Annual Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: 
$36,944.
    Statutory Authority: The Reclamation Act of 1902 established the 
Federal reclamation program. See Ch. 1093, 32 Stat. 388 (1902), as 
amended and supplemented. The basic principle of the Reclamation Act of 
1902 was that the United States, through the Secretary of the Interior, 
would build and operate irrigation works from the proceeds of public 
land sales in sixteen arid Western states (a seventeenth, Texas, was 
added in 1906). The Reclamation Project Act of 1939 expanded the 
purposes of the reclamation program and specified certain terms for 
contracts that the Secretary of the Interior enters into to furnish 
water and power. See Ch. 418, 53 Stat. 1187 (1939), as amended and 
supplemented. Section 5 of the Flood Control Act of 1944, as amended, 
is read in pari materia with the Reclamation Laws with respect to WAPA. 
See Ch. 665, 58 Stat. 887, as amended and supplemented. In 1977, 
section 302 of the Department of Energy Organization Act transferred 
the power marketing functions of the Department of the Interior to the 
Secretary of Energy, acting by and through a separate Administrator for 
WAPA. See 42 U.S.C. 7152 (a)(1)(D). Under this authority, WAPA markets 
Federal hydropower.

Signing Authority

    This document of the Department of Energy was signed on January 12, 
2024, by Tracey LeBeau Administrator, 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 upon publication in the Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2024.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2024-01013 Filed 1-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P