Part A

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR COAL SURVEY FORMS
(EIA-1, 3, 4, 5, 6A, 6Q, 7A, 8A and 20)
OMB number 1905-0167

Request is made for a three-year extension with revisions for the Energy Information
Administration (EIA) Coal Program:
C

EIA-1

"Weekly Coal Monitoring Report - General Industries and
Blast Furnaces" (Standby)

C

EIA-3

"Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report –
Manufacturing and Transformation/Processing Coal Plants
and Commercial and Institutional Coal Users” (proposed
new title and extended form)

C

EIA-4

"Weekly Coal Monitoring Report - Coke Plants" (Standby)

C

EIA-5

"Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report – Coke
Plants"

C

EIA-6A

"Coal Distribution Report - Annual" (proposed to be
discontinued)

C

EIA-6Q

"Quarterly Coal Report" (Standby)

C

EIA-7A

"Coal Production Report"

C

EIA-8A

“Coal Stocks Report – Annual” (proposed new form)

C

EIA-20

"Weekly Telephone Survey of Coal Burning Utilities and
Independent Power Producers” (Standby)

Changes proposed for the Forms EIA-3, EIA-5, and EIA-7A are described in the
following sections. In addition, a section below on the EIA-6A form discusses EIA’s plan to
discontinue Form EIA-6A but continue to publish data on coal distribution using data from
alternate sources. Another section below provides details on the EIA-8A form, proposed to
collect data on producer and distributor coal stocks in place of EIA-6A stock data. The form
EIA-20 name will change to “Weekly Telephone Survey of Coal Burning Utilities and
Independent Power Producers” and if activated, will include a sample of independent power
producers. No changes are proposed for the remaining surveys in the Package (EIA-1, EIA-4,
and EIA-6Q). Copies of the forms and instructions are included in Appendix A.
Coal Program Package – January 2008
1

Form EIA-3 (Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report – Manufacturing and
Transformation/Processing Coal Plants and Commercial and Institutional Coal Users)
Commercial and institutional coal users will be added as respondents to the EIA-3 survey
as an alternative source for data previously collected on the EIA-6A. EIA proposes to rename
the residential and commercial sector as “commercial and institutional” to more accurately
reflect its makeup.
EIA proposes to add schedules for coal transformation to include gasification (Schedule
G), liquefaction (Schedule L), coal refining (Schedule R), and to replace Schedule S1 (coal
synfuel) with a revised schedule (Schedule S). The new proposed schedules (G, L, and R) will
allow EIA to collect coal usage data from new coal transformation facilities, whose numbers are
likely to grow during the period of reauthorization.
As proposed, Schedules G and L each have three sections: Section I for reporting
distribution of transformed coal product (quantity, State of destination, predominant and
secondary modes of transportation), Section II for reporting the quality of the transformation
product (e.g., heat and sulfur contents), and Section III for reporting byproducts (type, unit of
measure, quantity produced, and quantity distributed or sold). Schedule R would gather data on
distribution and quality (similar to schedules G and L) but would require data on beginning
stocks, production, and ending stocks of refined coal (Section III) in place of the byproducts data
collected on schedules G and L (Section III). Schedule S (Synfuel) would be a replacement
schedule for data collected on the current S1 schedule and would add predominant and
secondary transportation mode for distributed coal synfuel.
Coal liquefaction and refining facilities have either been proposed or are under
construction. A full-scale coal gasification plant (North Dakota) has been in operation since the
mid-1980’s. Due to high natural gas and petroleum prices, it is likely that the coal
transformation sectors will grow. The new G, L, and R schedules would allow EIA to gather
data on inputs and outputs and report comprehensively to the public on the energy and product
flows associated with these activities. Schedule S (replacement for the existing Schedule S1)
would allow EIA to continue to report the quantity of coal synfuel distributed to final consumers
including transport mode. EIA would report to the public total coal received, coal consumed,
coal transformed, coal quality, transport mode, and volumes and quality for products and
byproducts aggregated to the State level for all coal processing operations in a State, as
appropriate for each coal transformation technology.
EIA proposes to use transport mode data for coal transformation to continue to provide
coal distribution data from coal origin State to destination State by consumer type. These data
will replace some data now gathered on the EIA-6A (proposed to be discontinued) and
complement the data by adding transport mode from the transformation facility to the final
consumer. Consequently, EIA will be able to continue to report comprehensive statistics on coal
Coal Program Package – January 2008
2

distribution and continue an EIA data series dating back to the 1980’s. For data year 2008, EIA
expects to collect data from only one coal transformation facility, the North Dakota coal
gasification plant, if the new form is authorized. As additional coal transformation facilities are
started, EIA would collect data on the appropriate schedule.
Form EIA-5 (Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report – Coke Plants)
EIA proposes to add new fields to collect data on total revenues from commercial sales of
coke and breeze. EIA will divide total revenue by tons to estimate an average selling price per
ton. EIA has received requests for data on average prices for coke and breeze. The new revenue
data would allow EIA to report to the public an average aggregate price for coke and breeze.
Form EIA-6A (Coal Distribution Report - Annual)
EIA proposes to discontinue the EIA-6A survey, which currently collects data on coal
distributed by coal producers and distributors/brokers and data on stocks held by producers and
distributors/brokers. However, EIA intends to continue providing coal distribution and
distributor/broker stock data to the public. Therefore, EIA proposes substitute processes to
obtain some of the data currently collected on the EIA-6A survey from other existing EIA
surveys and the remaining data from a new proposed EIA survey, Form EIA-8A “Coal Stocks
Report—Annual”.
The EIA-6A data survey--operating under an existing authorization--collects information
on coal distributed (by producers and distributors/brokers) to the electric power sector. On the
EIA-423, FERC-423 and the EIA-860 survey forms, EIA currently collects data from electric
power plants on the amount of coal received, including additional coal data such as State of
origin, transport mode and destination State. EIA has compared the data currently collected
from producers and distributors/brokers on the EIA-6A with the similar data collected from
electric power consumers on the electric surveys and found close agreement. Accordingly, EIA
has concluded that a practical and efficient alternative to surveying producers and
distributors/brokers is to develop information technology systems that capture and report the
relevant coal data being collected from electric consumers. EIA has concluded that this
alternative will maintain data quality and significantly reduce the burden on current respondents
without causing any change to the burden of the applicable electric power sector consumers.
EIA is concurrently proposing to combine data elements from the EIA-423 and FERC423 forms into a new EIA-923 form. If that proposal is approved, EIA would then take its
electric power sector data from the replacement EIA-923 survey for the alternative procedure
described above.
As a replacement for coal distribution data to coke plants and manufacturing plants now
collected on the EIA-6A form, EIA proposes to obtain comparable data from the EIA-5 survey
Coal Program Package – January 2008
3

of coke plants and the EIA-3 survey of manufacturing plants.
Similarly, coal distributor data for the residential and commercial sector currently
collected on the EIA-6A survey would be replaced by data collected on the EIA-3 survey by
adding commercial and institutional coal users as respondents to the EIA-3 survey.
By shifting to these alternate data sources, EIA will be able to post quarterly domestic
coal distribution tables rather than the annual tables that it posts now. The quarterly data tables
will be available approximately 90 days after the close of the latest quarter, which will improve
substantially the timeliness of the coal distribution data.
Form EIA-7A (Coal Production Report)
EIA proposes to add questions to determine the type of surface mining technology for
each of the surface mines that report on the EIA-7A. EIA will use the additional data to report to
the public the amount of coal surface-mined by each type of technology. This will make EIA’s
data on surface-mined coal consistent with its underground-mined data.
On the EIA-7A form, EIA proposes to include purchaser’s contact name, telephone
number and email address when coal is reported as sold to wholesale or retail coal dealers or
brokers. EIA will use this information to update the survey frame and respondent contact
information for its new EIA-8A survey (see below).
EIA proposes the addition of a second level of respondent contact information to the
EIA-7A form. Currently, only a single set of contact information is collected on the EIA-7A.
EIA would use this information to contact firms when the first level respondent is no longer
available. This information would help EIA provide data to the public in a timely manner.
Form EIA-8A (Coal Stocks Report – Annual)
EIA proposes to collect annual data on distributor/broker coal stocks (now collected on
the EIA-6A survey) on a new annual survey, which will be named Form EIA-8A and which will
be sent annually to distributors/brokers. The new EIA-8A form will request data on coal stock
levels at the beginning of the year, at the end of the year and on inter-year adjustments. Only
entities owning stocks of 10,000 or more tons of coal at the end of the reporting year would be
required to submit Form EIA-8A. Using data reflecting producer coal stocks from the EIA-7A
and the new EIA-8A, EIA will be able to continue to provide annual data to the public on the
quantity of coal stocks held by producers and distributors/brokers.

Coal Program Package – January 2008
4

Data Disclosure Provisions
EIA in the Federal Register notice 72 FR 40290 proposed new disclosure provisions for
the EIA-3, EIA-5, EIA-7A surveys and the new EIA-8A survey to make all data, except certain
sensitive economic data, available to the public, and after a delay to release the sensitive
economic data, where the lag in release would be long enough so the data are historic and not
real time.
EIA received comments from specific sites affected by the proposal. The commenting
parties stated that such data can be used to assess a competitor’s production costs and cost of
sales, and that coal suppliers could use the data as justification for increasing fuel prices. Other
parties pointed to the possibility that some sites may not continue to send data to EIA when they
realize later that their site-specific data are publicly available. Low response rates, if they were
to occur, could lead to incomplete aggregate energy data and prevent EIA from accomplishing its
stated goal of reporting comprehensive, high quality data.
After careful deliberation, EIA now proposes not to change its data disclosure provision
for data collected in the Coal Program. EIA will continue to publish aggregate coal data that
does not disclose site-specific data. The data disclosure provisions on each of the forms
proposed for authorization state that respondent contact information would be released upon
request but that all other data are subject to withholding in accordance with relevant regulations
and laws.
The information collection proposed in this supporting statement has been reviewed in
light of applicable information quality guidelines. It has been determined that the information
will be collected, maintained, and used in a manner consistent with the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB), the DOE, and the EIA information quality guidelines.
Justification
1. Legal Authority
The following provisions provide the authority for these mandatory data collections:
(a) Section 13(b), 15 U.S.C., Section 772(b), of the Federal Energy Administration Act of
1974 (FEAA) Public Law 93-275 states:
"All persons owning or operating facilities or business premises who are engaged in any
phase of energy supply or major energy consumption shall make available to the
[Secretary] such information and periodic reports, records, documents, and other data
relating to the purposes of this Act, including full identification of all data and
projections as to source, time, and methodology of development, as the [Secretary] may
Coal Program Package – January 2008
5

prescribe by regulation or order as necessary or appropriate for the proper exercise of
functions under the Act."
(b) The functions of the Secretary are set forth in Section 5(b), 15 U.S.C., Section 764(b),
of the FEAA, which states that the Secretary shall, to the extent he is authorized by
Section 5(a) of the FEAA ... "
(2) assess the adequacy of energy resources to meet demands in the immediate and longer
range future for all sectors of the economy and for the general public; ...
(9) collect, evaluate, assemble, and analyze energy information on reserves, production,
demand, and related economic data; ...
(12) perform such other functions as may be prescribed by law."
(c) As the authority for invoking Section 5(b) above Section 5(a), 15 U.S.C., Section
764(a), of the FEAA in turn states:
"Subject to the provisions and procedures set forth in this Act, the [Secretary] shall be
responsible for such actions as are taken to assure that adequate provision is made to
meet the energy needs of the nation. To that end, he shall make such plans and direct and
conduct such programs related to the production, conservation, use, control, distribution,
rationing, and allocation of all forms of energy as are appropriate in connection with only
those authorities or functions -(1) specifically transferred to or vested in him by or pursuant to this Act; ...
(3) otherwise specifically vested in the [Secretary] by the Congress."
(d) Authority for invoking Section 5(a) of the FEAA is provided by section 52, 15
U.S.C., Section 790a, of the FEAA, which states that the Administrator of the EIA:
"...[Shall] establish a National Energy Information System...[which] shall contain such
information as is required to provide a description of energy supply and consumption...
(b) ...the System shall contain such energy information as is necessary to carry out the
Administration's statistical and forecasting activities, ... and such energy information as is
required to define and permit analysis of-(1) the institutional structure of the energy supply system including patterns of ownership
and control of mineral fuel... energy resources and the production, distribution, and
marketing of mineral fuels and electricity;
Coal Program Package – January 2008
6

(2) the consumption of mineral fuels, nonmineral energy resources, and electricity by
such classes, sectors, and regions as may be appropriate for the purposes of this Act;
(3) the sensitivity of energy resource reserves, exploration , development, production,
transportation , and consumption to economic factors, environmental constraints,
technological improvements, and substitutability of alternate energy sources…
(5) industrial, labor, and regional impacts of changes in patterns of energy supply and
consumption."
2. Needs for and Uses of the Data
EIA coal data and analyses are used by Congress, Federal agencies, and State and local
governments to reach decisions on national and local policies and a variety of important coalrelated issues, including energy development and use, environmental protection, domestic
welfare, and the health of the coal industry. EIA provides information essential to Presidential
and Congressional commissions dealing with Federal coal leasing actions, assessing coal mine
safety and health issues, and evaluating the potential for the DOE Clean Coal Technology
program. EIA coal data are used for conducting nonutility power producer growth analysis,
evaluating electric utility responses to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, determining
appropriate changes to surface mining regulations, estimating Black Lung tax revenues,
estimating coal export potential, and assessing transportation capabilities and rates.
Principal Federal users include the Departments of Energy, Interior, Labor, Commerce,
Agriculture and Transportation, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental
Protection Agency, and the Federal Reserve Board.
Within DOE, coal data are widely used for policy analysis, economic modeling,
forecasting, coal supply and demand studies, and in guiding research and development programs.
Numerous Congressional committees, particularly those dealing with energy, the
environment, public lands, health and safety, commerce, transportation, water resources,
research and development, the Federal budget, and taxes need detailed coal supply and
disposition data. Legislative analyses conducted by the Congressional Research Service of the
Library of Congress also require reliable and comprehensive coal industry information.
Typical of some of the regional and State agencies that use EIA coal data and statistics
for economic and energy supply and demand analyses are: the Geological Survey of Alabama;
the Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals; the New Jersey Energy Department; the New
York State Energy Office; the Southern Governors' Association; the Utah Energy Office; the
Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy Administration; the West Virginia
Coal Program Package – January 2008
7

Department of Energy; New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department;
Kentucky Governor's Office for Coal and Energy Policy; and Pennsylvania State University.
Trade associations also depend upon EIA coal data for economic, regulatory, and
legislative analyses. Included in this group are: the Association of American Railroads, the
Edison Electric Institute, the Indiana Coal Association, the Mining and Reclamation Council of
America, the National Mining Association, the Mississippi Valley Coal Exporters Council, and
the West Virginia Coal Association.
Additional users of EIA data are coal producers and distributors, coal-consuming
companies, financial/analytic service firms, publishing organizations, the media (electronic and
printed), transportation companies, law firms, and coal labor unions, all of which employ coal
data for economic, financial, technical, and market analyses. EIA data also are used in
provisions that support commercial contracts and labor agreements.
EIA provides the only comprehensive data on coal production, distribution, and
consumption in the United States. EIA coal data are presented in numerous publications
including the following reports published by agencies of the U.S. Government:
o
o
o
o
o
o

Annual Energy Outlook (EIA)
Annual Energy Review (EIA)
Annual Coal Report (EIA)
Industrial Production Report (monthly, Federal Reserve Board)
Monthly Energy Review (EIA)
Productivity Measures for Selected Industries
(annual, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor)
o Quarterly Coal Report (EIA)
o Short-Term Energy Outlook (monthly, EIA)
o Statistical Abstract of the United States (annual,
Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce)
o Weekly Coal Production (EIA).
EIA coal data are an integral part of international statistical reports on energy and are
included in:
o Coal Information, annual report published by the International Energy Agency
o Energy Statistics of OECD Countries, annual report published by the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development.
EIA coal data also provide the foundation for the development of the EIA’s short- and
long-term forecasts of coal supply and demand in domestic and world markets. The results of
these forecasts are contained in numerous EIA publications, including:
Coal Program Package – January 2008
8

o Short-Term Energy Outlook (monthly, EIA)
o Annual Energy Outlook (EIA).
The EIA models which use these data directly include:
o National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), Coal Market Module,
o Short-Term Integrated Forecasting System (STIFS).
Much of EIA’s coal data are available on the World Wide Web.
3. Use of Improved Technology to Reduce Respondent Burden
EIA continues to use information technology to improve reporting options to all coal
survey respondents by making all survey forms and instructions available for download and
printing from the EIA website. All respondents are encouraged to provide e-mail addresses to
facilitate and expedite communications.
EIA has implemented an Internet Data Collection system for Forms EIA-3, EIA-5 and
EIA-7A. The proposed Form EIA-8A will also be implemented in the Internet Data Collection
(IDC) system. Reduced burden will occur because electronic submission reduces the time
required to fill out the form and to correct edits, as the IDC has an edit function within its
system, and it eliminates the respondent processing steps associated with sending the paper
forms back to EIA by mail.
4a. Efforts to Identify Data Duplication
As part of a continuing effort to avoid data duplication, the EIA routinely reviews and
evaluates coal industry information available from a variety of sources, including other Federal
agencies, industry trade associations, State governments, and commercial information services,
to identify instances of duplication. Additionally, in the public notices and consultations
associated with the triennial re-clearance of the Coal Program Package, the EIA specifically
encourages respondents and data users to identify alternate sources of the coal information the
EIA proposes to collect.
Instances of potential data duplication identified by the EIA are evaluated in terms of
data coverage, level of aggregation, frequency of collection, data reliability, and statutory
requirements to determine whether alternate data sources represent a suitable substitute for EIA
data.
EIA has identified and evaluated an alternate source for the coal distribution data that it
currently collects for the U.S. electric power sector on the EIA-6A survey. EIA has determined
Coal Program Package – January 2008
9

that the alternate source –Forms EIA-423 and FERC 423 — is a timelier source of the data since
the alternate data are gathered on a monthly basis with a reporting lag of approximately 60 days
whereas the EIA-6A survey is an annual survey with a reporting lag of approximately nine
months after the close of the year. EIA also has determined that the accuracy of the alternate
data matches or exceeds that of the EIA-6A data. In this Supporting Statement, EIA
recommends that the EIA-6A survey be discontinued and that electric power sector data be
obtained from the alternate existing surveys.
In previous reauthorization packages, EIA deliberately did not request the phase-out of
the EIA-6A data survey and its replacement with data from alternate sources. During earlier
reauthorization cycles, surveys of electric power data were evolving along a somewhat
unchartered course as deregulated electric power generators dropped out of the FERC 423
survey frame. Remaining regulated electric generating entities continued to file the required
FERC 423 form but non-regulated electric power generators had to be identified and a new EIA423 form developed and deployed for these non-regulated entities. Sufficient time was needed
for this process to stabilize. Time also was needed to develop alternate sources for collecting
data from manufacturing and coke plants. Under current authority, EIA added data elements on
transport mode to the EIA-3 (manufacturing) and EIA-5 (coke) forms. After compiling and
testing EIA-3 and EIA-5 data including the new data on transport mode, EIA has determined that
the EIA-3 and EIA-5 data are as complete as the current EIA-6A survey data for manufacturing
and coke plants and considerably timelier.
4b. Why Similar Existing Information Cannot Be Used
The EIA has identified potential areas of duplication among Federal forms collecting coal
production and related data, specifically the Form EIA-7A, "Coal Production Report," the
MSHA Form 7000-2, "Quarterly Mine Employment and Coal Production Report," the Form
OSM-1, "Production and Reclamation Fee Report," the Minerals Management Service's Form
MMS-4293, Product Valuation and Associated Allowances - Coal" and the Department of
Justice's Form ATR-139, "Federal Coal Lease Review."
To make data collection and processing more efficient, EIA works closely with MSHA in
a cooperative program aimed at reducing redundant work. MSHA runs a data survey to collect
coal production and employment information used by both MSHA and EIA. For its part, EIA
applies quality checks to the data before it is released. Consequently, EIA does not collect coal
production and employment data on Form EIA-7A. The other data collected by EIA on Form
EIA-7A is not duplicated on the MSHA and OSM surveys.
5. Provisions for Reducing Burden on Small Businesses
The EIA recognizes the need to minimize the reporting burden on small businesses and
designs data surveys so that small operations are not unduly affected. Additionally, the EIA has
Coal Program Package – January 2008
10

C

established reporting thresholds for surveys likely to affect small businesses. These thresholds
either eliminate the reporting requirement for small businesses or limit the amount of
information they are asked to supply.
Reporting on the Form EIA-3, " Quarterly Coal Consumption and Quality Report –
Manufacturing and Transformation/Processing Coal Plants and Commercial and Institutional
Coal Users," is limited to manufacturing facilities including coal transformation plants,
commercial entities and institutional entities consuming more than 1,000 short tons of coal
annually.
All companies operating coke plants within the United States must submit Form EIA-5.
Small coal mine operators producing fewer than 10,000 short tons of coal annually and
coal preparation plants recording fewer than 5,000 hours per year are not required to file Form
EIA-7A. EIA will continue these small business exceptions.
Reporting on the proposed Form EIA-8A, “Coal Stocks Report – Annual” shall be
limited to all coal brokers, coal traders and coal terminals in the 50 United States and the District
of Columbia that owned stocks of 10,000 or more tons of coal at the end of the reporting year.
6. Results of Collecting Data Less Frequently
In keeping with its mandate, EIA is recognized as the major collector of comprehensive
and reliable U.S. energy supply and demand data. The Federal Government, State governments,
as well as the private sector of the economy rely on the EIA for energy statistics and consider its
publications reliable and timely indicators of current energy conditions and trends. The nonstandby coal forms proposed in the Package represent two quarterly surveys (EIA-3 and EIA-5)
and two annual surveys (EIA-7A and EIA-8A). Less frequent reporting on any of these four
forms would prevent EIA from meeting its mandate of providing timely, essential, and reliable
information.
7. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.5 Controlling Paperwork Burden on the Public
All EIA coal surveys are operated in accordance with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5. In
the event of a coal supply disruption, information could be collected weekly on Forms EIA-1,
EIA-4, and EIA-20. This weekly frequency is justified by the need to provide rapid response
during such a supply disruption to prevent adverse national economic impacts or to alleviate
potential human suffering.
8. Summary of Consultations Outside the Agency
On July 24, 2007, the EIA published Federal Register notice 72 FR 40290 outlining proposed
Coal Program Package – January 2008
11

changes to the Coal Program Package and inviting interested parties to comment. All comments
filed and EIA responses are provided in Appendix B.
9. Remuneration
Respondents will not be paid or provided any gifts in return for responding to EIA coal
data surveys.
10. Provisions for Confidentiality of Information
All forms receive the confidentiality treatment described below.
The information reported on these forms will be protected and not disclosed to the public
to the extent that it satisfies the criteria for exemption under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), 5 U.S.C. §552, the DOE regulations, 10 C.F.R. §1004.11, implementing the FOIA, and
the Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. §1905.
The Federal Energy Administration Act requires the Energy Information Administration
to provide company-specific data to other Federal agencies when requested for official use. The
information reported on these forms may also be made available, upon request, to another
component of the Department of Energy (DOE); to any Committee of Congress, the Government
Accountability Office, or other Federal agencies authorized by law to receive such information.
A court of competent jurisdiction may obtain this information in response to an order. The
information may be used for any nonstatistical purposes such as administrative, regulatory, law
enforcement, or adjudicatory purposes.
Disclosure limitation procedures are applied to the statistical data published from survey
information to ensure that the risk of disclosure of identifiable information is very small.
Upon request specific to any of the forms, the name, address, and location (state or zip
code) of the responding companies will be released in the form of a full or partial list of
respondents.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
There are no questions of a sensitive nature on the coal survey forms.
12. Burden Estimates
a. Estimates of Hour Burden

Coal Program Package – January 2008
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The estimated respondent burden for each coal form is shown in Appendix C. The total
annual burden is estimated to be 4,474 hours. In the previous authorization package
(2005-2007), EIA estimated an annual total respondent burden of 7,961 hours. The
reduction in respondent burden is occurring because the EIA-6A is proposed to be
eliminated. The additions to the EIA-3 and the implementation of the EIA-8A will
require additional respondent hours, but overall will be substantially less than the
reduction resulting from the elimination of the EIA-6A.
b. Estimates of Annualized Cost to Respondents
Based on the estimated rate of $62 per hour for employees who would complete these
forms, the total annual respondent cost for all forms is estimated to be:
$62/hour x 4,474 hours/year = $277,388
An average cost per hour of $62 is used because that is the average loaded (salary plus
benefits) cost for an EIA employee assigned to data survey work. EIA assumes that the
survey respondent workforce completing surveys for EIA is comparable with the EIA
workforce.
13. Estimate of Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents
The EIA estimates that there are no capital, start-up, or operating costs to respondents
beyond the cost of the hours described in Item 12.
14. Estimated Annualized Costs to the Federal Government
Federal Government activities and costs associated with the surveys included in the Coal
Program Package are included in the Annual Operating Plans for the Office of Coal, Nuclear,
Electric and Alternate Fuels (CNEAF) of EIA. The estimated annualized cost to the
government, including personnel, for forms development, maintenance, data collection,
processing, analysis, and publication is $586,000. The overall annual costs to the Federal
Government have fallen from about $785,000 estimated for the last year of the current
authorization cycle) representing a 25% savings in Federal costs.
The Federal Government coal forms cost estimate for FY 2008 is shown below:

Coal Program Package – January 2008
13

ANNUAL COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, COAL FORMS (ESTIMATED)
Maintenance
Data Collection & Processing
Programming and System Enhancement
Data Analysis & Publication
Total

$ 130,000
287,000
71,000
98,000
_________
$ 586,000

15. Changes in Respondent Burden
It is estimated there will be a decrease (3,487 hours) in the total respondent burden from
7,961 hours/year to 4,474 hours/year. The decrease in total burden hours is attributable to the
elimination of the EIA-6A survey. Most of the reduction would occur when EIA switches over
to alternate coal distribution data for the electric generation final consumption sector available
from existing surveys run by the Electric Power Division of CNEAF. Other data—eliminated by
discontinuing the EIA-6A form (-4,425)--will be obtained by adding commercial and
institutional users to the EIA-3 survey (+35), adding elements on total coke and breeze revenues
on the EIA-5 survey (+4), by collecting producer stock data on the EIA-7A (+799), and by
collecting distributor stock data on the EIA-8A (+100). ( The overall change is -4,425 hours due
to agency discretion and +938 hours due to agency discretion = -3,487 hours.)
16. Schedule for Collecting and Publishing Data
Plans to tabulate and publish data collected by the coal data collection forms are
described below.
a. Weekly Forms
The weekly data reported on Forms EIA-1, EIA-4, and EIA-20 will be collected only
during coal supply disruptions from a sample of respondents and will not be published in an
individually identifiable form. The data collected from Forms EIA-1, and EIA-4 from
manufacturing and coke plants will be used in the compilation of public statistical reports for
monitoring coal consumption and stocks. Form EIA-20, if and when activated, will include
electric utilities and independent power producers, and is designed to gather up-to-date
information that will enable DOE to closely monitor electric power coal consumption and stocks
and evaluate the potential impact of a coal supply disruption.
A report week is defined as a calendar week beginning 12:01 A.M. on Sunday and ending
at midnight on the following Saturday. A telephone call will be made to collect the data on each
form beginning each Monday of each report week during the coal supply disruption.

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b. Quarterly Forms
The data collected on Form EIA-3 (manufacturing and transformation/refining plants,
and commercial and institutional users) and Form EIA-5 (coke plants) will be used in the
compilation of aggregated statistical reports to provide Congress with basic statistics concerning
coal receipts, coal consumption, coal stocks, coal prices at reporting facilities, coal origin,
transport mode, and coal quality. Schedule EIA-6Q would, if activated, collect coal production
data from U.S. coal producers and distributors. Currently, EIA-6Q type quarterly production
data are collected by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and provided to EIA
under a cooperative agreement. EIA plans to continue to obtain quarterly coal production data
from MSHA and only would activate form EIA-6Q in the eventuality that MSHA discontinued
its coal production survey.
Data from Forms EIA-3 and EIA-5 appear in the EIA publications, Quarterly Coal
Report, Monthly Energy Review, Annual Energy Review, and the Annual Coal Report. In
addition, EIA uses the data for coal supply analyses and in short-term modeling efforts requested
by Congress that forecast coal supply, prices, and environmental quality.
The quarterly forms are due approximately one month after the close of each quarter.
The quarters are:
(1st)
(2nd)
(3rd)
(4th)

January 1- March 31
April 1 - June 30
July 1 - September 30
October 1 - December 31

The approximate due dates are May 1, August 1, November 1, and February 1,
respectively, following each quarter.
Data compiled from the quarterly surveys (EIA-3 and EIA-5) are available for
distribution to the public as web-accessible data about 75 days after the close of the quarter.
Tables showing the distribution of coal by origin, by destination and by transport mode
developed from the EIA-3, EIA-5, and alternatives to the EIA-6A survey (if approved) would be
posted to EIA’s public website about 75 days after the close of the quarter. This posting
schedule would represent an improvement in data timeliness. EIA normally posts EIA-6A
annual distribution data about 9 to 12 months after the close of the survey year. Producer and
distributor end-of-year stock data gathered on the EIA-7A and EIA-8A forms would be posted
annually, approximately six months after the close of the reporting year.

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15

c. Annual Forms
Form EIA-7A collects information on coal production and related information from U.S.
coal mining operations. Form EIA-8A collects coal stocks data from U.S. coal brokers, coal
traders and coal terminals. These data appear in the Weekly Coal Production Report, Annual
Coal Report, Quarterly Coal Report, and Annual Energy Review. These data are also used
extensively in the EIA's coal analysis and forecasting models. Respondents are required to
submit Forms EIA-7A and EIA-8A no later than April 1st of the year following the reporting
period, based on the calendar year.
The Annual Coal Report, developed primarily from EIA-7A data is posted to EIA’s
public website about mid-August following the end of the reporting year.
17. Expiration Date Exception
The expiration date will be included on the forms.
18. Certification
There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in Item 19, "Certification
for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions," of OMB Form 83-I.

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