published 60-day FRN

Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 140 / Monday, July 24, 2017 / Notices
meetings discussed above. Comments
will not be accepted by email or in any
other method than those specified
above. Comments in any format (hard
copy or electronic) submitted on behalf
of others will not be accepted. Before
including your address, phone number,
email address, or other personal
identifying information in your
comment, you should be aware that
your entire comment—including your
personal identifying information—may
be made publicly available at any time.
While you can ask us in your comment
to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.
Dated: July 18, 2017.
Laura E. Joss,
Regional Director, Pacific West.
[FR Doc. 2017–15482 Filed 7–21–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312–52–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Natural Resources Revenue
[Docket No. ONRR–2011–0009; DS63644000
DR2000000.CH7000 178D0102R2]

Agency Information Collection
Activities: Collection of Monies Due
the Federal Government
Office of Natural Resources
Revenue (ONRR), Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

To comply with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(PRA), ONRR is inviting comments on a
collection of information requests that
we will submit to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and approval. This Information
Collection Request (ICR) covers the
paperwork requirements in title 30,
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), part
1218. This ICR pertains to cross-lease
netting in calculation of late-payment
interest; a lessee’s designation of
designee; and Tribal permission for
recoupment on Indian oil and gas
leases.

SUMMARY:

You must submit your written
comments on or before September 22,
2017.

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DATES:

You may submit comments
on this ICR to ONRR by using one of the
following three methods. Please
reference ‘‘ICR 1012–0008’’ in your
comments.
• Electronically go to http://
www.regulations.gov. In the entry titled
‘‘Enter Keyword or ID,’’ enter ‘‘ONRR–

ADDRESSES:

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2011–0009,’’ then click ‘‘Search.’’
Follow the instructions to submit public
comments. ONRR will post all
comments.
• Email comments to Mr. Armand
Southall, Regulatory Specialist, at
Armand.Southall@onrr.gov.
• Hand-carry or mail comments,
using an overnight courier service, to
ONRR. Our courier address is Building
53, entrance E–20, Denver Federal
Center, West 6th Ave. and Kipling St.,
Denver, Colorado 80225. Visitor parking
is available near entrance E–20, with a
phone to request entry. Call Mr.
Armando Salazar at (303) 231–3585 or
Ms. Janet Giron at (303) 231–3088 to
gain entrance.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For
questions on technical issues, contact
Mr. Hans Meingast, Financial Services,
FM, ONRR, telephone (303) 231–3382,
or email Hans.Meingast@onrr.gov. For
other questions, contact Mr. Armand
Southall, telephone (303) 231–3221, or
email Armand.Southall@onrr.gov. You
may also contact Mr. Southall to obtain
copies (free of charge) of (1) the ICR, (2)
any associated forms, and (3) the
regulations that require the subject
collection of information. You may also
review the information collection
request online at http://
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Abstract: The Secretary of the United
States Department of the Interior is
responsible for collecting royalties from
lessees who produce minerals from
leased Federal and Indian lands and the
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Under
various laws, the Secretary’s
responsibility is to manage mineral
resources production on Federal and
Indian lands and the OCS, collect the
royalties and other mineral revenues
due, and distribute the funds collected.
ONRR performs the royalty management
functions and assists the Secretary in
carrying out the Department’s
responsibilities. We have posted those
laws pertaining to mineral leases on
Federal and Indian lands and the OCS
at http://www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_D/
PubLaws/default.htm.
I. General Information
When a company or an individual
enters into a lease to explore, develop,
produce, and dispose of minerals from
Federal or Indian lands, that company
or individual agrees to pay the lessor a
share in an amount or value of
production from the leased lands. The
lessee is required to report various kinds
of information to the lessor relative to
the disposition of the minerals. Such
information is generally available

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34333

within the records of the lessee or others
involved in developing, transporting,
processing, purchasing, or selling such
minerals. The information collected
includes data necessary to ensure that
production is accurately valued and that
royalties are appropriately paid.
II. Information Collections
This ICR covers unique reporting
circumstances, including (1) cross-lease
netting in calculation of late-payment
interest; (2) a lessee’s designation of a
designee; and (3) Tribal permission for
recoupment on Indian oil and gas
leases.
A. Cross-Lease Netting in Calculation of
Late-Payment Interest
Regulations at § 1218.54 require
ONRR to assess interest on unpaid or
underpaid amounts. ONRR distributes
these interest revenues to States, Indian
Tribes, and the U.S. Treasury based on
financial lease distribution information.
Current regulations at § 1218.42 provide
that an overpayment on a lease or leases
may be offset against an underpayment
on a different lease or leases to
determine the net payment subject to
interest when certain conditions are
met. This process is called cross-lease
netting. The payor must demonstrate
that a cross-lease netting exception
exists by submitting production reports,
pipeline allocation reports, or other
similar documentary evidence. This
information is necessary in order for
ONRR to determine the correct amount
of interest that the lessee owes and to
ensure that we collect in full all monies
owed to the Federal government.
B. Designation of Designee
The Royalty Simplification and
Fairness Act (RSFA) defines a ‘‘lessee’’
to include both the owner of operating
rights and the owner of record title.
Under RSFA, owners of operating rights
are primarily liable, and owners of lease
record title secondarily liable for
making royalty and related payments on
Federal oil and gas leases (see 30 CFR
1218.52). It is common however, for a
payor other than a lessee to make these
payments. When a payor makes
payments on behalf of a lessee, RSFA
section 6(g) requires that the lessee
designate the payor as its designee and
notify ONRR of its designation in
writing. We designed form ONRR–4425,
Designation Form for Royalty Payment
Responsibility, to request all the
information necessary for lessees to
comply with these RSFA requirements
when choosing to designate an agent to
pay for them. We require this
information to ensure proper mineral
revenue collection.

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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 140 / Monday, July 24, 2017 / Notices

C. Tribal Permission for Recoupment on
Indian Oil and Gas Leases
Overpayments on Tribal Indian leases
may be recouped against royalties or
other revenues owed in a month under
other leases for which that Tribe is a
lessor. To do so, lessees must comply
with regulations at 30 CFR 12l8.53(b),
allowing only lessees with written
permission from the Tribe to recoup
overpayments on one lease against a
different lease for which the Tribe is the
lessor. The payor must provide ONRR
with a copy of the Tribe’s written
permission.

III. OMB Approval
We are requesting OMB’s approval to
continue to collect this information. Not
collecting this information would limit
the Secretary’s ability to discharge the
duties of the office and may also result
in the loss of royalty payments.
Proprietary information submitted is
protected, and there are no questions of
a sensitive nature included in this
information collection.
IV. Data
Title: Collection of Monies Due the
Federal Government—30 CFR part 1218.
OMB Control Number: 1012–0008.

Bureau Form Number: Form ONRR–
4425.
Frequency: On occasion.
Estimated Number and Description of
Respondents: 35 Federal and Indian
lessees.
Estimated Annual Reporting and
Recordkeeping ‘‘Hour’’ Burden: 59
hours.
We have not included in our
estimates certain requirements
performed in the normal course of
business, which are considered usual
and customary. The following table
shows the estimated burden hours by
CFR section and paragraph:

RESPONDENTS’ ESTIMATED ANNUAL BURDEN HOURS
Citation 30 CFR Part 1218

Reporting and recordkeeping requirement

Average
number of
annual
responses

Hour burden

Annual
burden hours

Subpart A—General Provisions—Cross-lease netting in calculation of late-payment interest
1218.42(b) and (c) ..................

Cross-lease netting in calculation of late-payment interest.
(b) Royalties attributed to production from a lease or
leases which should have been attributed to production
from a different lease or leases may be offset . . . if . . .
the payor submits production reports, pipeline allocation
reports, or other similar documentary evidence pertaining
to the specific production involved which verifies the correct production information . . .
(c) If ONRR assesses late-payment interest and the payor
asserts that some or all of the interest is not owed . . .
the burden is on the payor to demonstrate that the exception applies . . .

2

25

50

5

4

Subpart B—Oil and Gas, General—How does a lessee designate a Designee?
1218.52 (a), (c), and (d) .........

How does a lessee designate a Designee? (a) If you are a
lessee under 30 U.S.C. 1701(7), and you want to designate a person to make all or part of the payments due
under a lease on your behalf . . . you must notify ONRR .
. . in writing of such designation . . .
(c) If you want to terminate a designation . . . you must provide [the following] to ONRR in writing . . .
(d) ONRR may require you to provide notice when there is
a change in the percentage of your record title or operating rights ownership.
ONRR currently uses Form ONRR–4425, Designation Form
for Royalty Payment Responsibility, to collect this information.

0.75

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Subpart B—Oil and Gas, General—Recoupment of overpayments on Indian mineral leases
1218.53 (b) .............................

Recoupment of overpayments on Indian mineral leases. (b)
With written permission authorized by tribal statute or resolution, a payor may recoup an overpayment against royalties or other revenues owed . . . under other leases . . .
A copy of the tribe’s written permission must be furnished
to ONRR . . .

1

5

5

Total Burden ....................

.................................................................................................

........................

35

59

Estimated Annual Reporting and
Recordkeeping ‘‘Non-hour’’ Cost
Burden: We have identified no ‘‘nonhour cost’’ burden associated with this
collection of information.

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19:33 Jul 21, 2017

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Public Disclosure Statement: The PRA
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) provides that an
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and
a person is not required to respond to,
a collection of information unless it

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displays a currently valid OMB control
number.
V. Request for Comments
Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA
requires each agency to ‘‘* * * provide

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mstockstill on DSK30JT082PROD with NOTICES

Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 140 / Monday, July 24, 2017 / Notices
60-day notice in the Federal Register
* * * and otherwise consult with
members of the public and affected
agencies concerning each proposed
collection of information * * *.’’
Agencies must specifically solicit
comments to (a) evaluate whether the
proposed collection of information is
necessary for the agency to perform its
duties, including whether the
information is useful; (b) evaluate the
accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the
burden of the proposed collection of
information; (c) enhance the quality,
usefulness, and clarity of the
information that ONRR collects; and (d)
minimize the burden on the
respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
The PRA also requires agencies to
estimate the total annual reporting
‘‘non-hour cost’’ burden to respondents
or record-keepers resulting from the
collection of information. If you have
costs to generate, maintain, and disclose
this information, you should comment
and provide your total capital and
startup cost components or annual
operation, maintenance, and purchase
of service components. You should
describe the methods that you use to
estimate (1) major cost factors, including
system and technology acquisition, (2)
expected useful life of capital
equipment, (3) discount rate(s), and (4)
the period over which you incur costs.
Capital and startup costs include,
among other items, computers and
software that you purchase to prepare
for collecting information and
monitoring, sampling, and testing
equipment, and record-storage facilities.
Generally, your estimates should not
include equipment or services
purchased (i) before October 1, 1995; (ii)
to comply with requirements not
associated with the information
collection; (iii) for reasons other than to
provide information or keep records for
the Federal government; or (iv) as part
of customary and usual business, or
private practices.
We will summarize written responses
to this notice and address them in our
ICR submission for OMB approval,
including appropriate adjustments to
the estimated burden. We will provide
a copy of the ICR to you, without
charge, upon request. We also will post
the ICR at http://www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_
D/FRNotices/FRInfColl.htm.
Public Comment Policy: ONRR will
post all comments, including names and
addresses of respondents at http://
www.regulations.gov. Before including
Personally Identifiable Information (PII),
such as your address, phone number,
email address, or other personal

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18:13 Jul 21, 2017

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information in your comment(s), you
should be aware that your entire
comment (including PII) may be made
available to the public at any time.
While you may ask us, in your
comment, to withhold PII from public
view, we cannot guarantee that we will
be able to do so.
ONRR Information Collection
Coordinator: Armand Southall (303)
231–3221.
Authority
The authorities for this action are the
Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (30 U.S.C.
192), Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act
(43 U.S.C. 1353), Indian Mineral
Development Act of 1982 (Pub. L. 97–
382—Dec. 22, 1982), and the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501
et seq.).
Gregory J. Gould,
Director for Office of Natural Resources
Revenue.

34335

the civil penalty for the City’s violations
will be established separately.
The publication of this notice opens
a period for public comment on the
Partial Consent Decree. Comments
should be addressed to the Assistant
Attorney General, Environment and
Natural Resources Division, and should
refer to United States v. The City of
Cleveland Heights, Ohio and The State
of Ohio, D.J. Ref. No. 90–5–1–1–10457.
All comments must be submitted no
later than thirty (30) days after the
publication date of this notice.
Comments may be submitted either by
email or by mail:
To submit
comments:

Send them to:

By email .......

pubcomment-ees.enrd@
usdoj.gov.
Assistant Attorney General,
U.S. DOJ—ENRD, P.O.
Box 7611, Washington, DC
20044–7611.

By mail .........

[FR Doc. 2017–15470 Filed 7–21–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4335–30–P

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Notice of Lodging of Proposed Partial
Consent Decree Under the Clean Water
Act
On July 19, 2017, the Department of
Justice lodged a proposed Partial
Consent Decree with the United States
District Court for the Northern District
of Ohio in the lawsuit entitled United
States v. The City of Cleveland Heights,
Ohio and The State of Ohio, Civil
Action No. 17–cv–1517.
The United States filed this lawsuit
under the Clean Water Act. The United
States’ complaint alleges that the City of
Cleveland Heights, Ohio violated the
Clean Water Act and the City’s
stormwater permit by allowing
discharges of untreated sanitary sewage
into local streams flowing to Lake Erie.
The complaint seeks injunctive relief
and civil penalties. The State of Ohio is
named as a defendant solely to satisfy
Section 309(e) of the Clean Water Act 33
U.S.C. 1319(e).
The Partial Consent Decree requires
Cleveland Heights to perform a
comprehensive study of its sewer
system and submit a plan, for EPA
approval, to eliminate sanitary sewer
overflows. The agreement also requires
certain early action projects to reduce
sanitary sewage overflows and
improvements to the City’s sewer
system operations. The Partial Consent
Decree does not resolve the United
States’ claims. The schedule for
implementing the approved plan and

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During the public comment period,
the Partial Consent Decree may be
examined and downloaded at this
Justice Department Web site: http://
www.justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.
We will provide a paper copy of the
Partial Consent Decree upon written
request and payment of reproduction
costs. Please mail your request and
payment to: Consent Decree Library,
U.S. DOJ—ENRD, P.O. Box 7611,
Washington, DC 20044–7611.
Please enclose a check or money order
for $22.75 (25 cents per page
reproduction cost) payable to the United
States Treasury. For a paper copy
without the exhibits and signature
pages, the cost is $12.25.
Randall M. Stone,
Acting Assistant Section Chief,
Environmental Enforcement Section,
Environment and Natural Resources Division.
[FR Doc. 2017–15450 Filed 7–21–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410–15–P

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Comment Request
National Science Foundation.
Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request.

AGENCY:
ACTION:

Under the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, and as part of its
continuing effort to reduce paperwork
and respondent burden, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) is inviting
the general public and other Federal
agencies to comment on this proposed
continuing information collection. This

SUMMARY:

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