SupportingStatementA

Supporting Statement for Requests for OMB Approval

For CIPSEA Confidentiality Pledge Revision

OMB Control No. 1905-0211

Summary

This request is to make a permanent change in the confidentiality pledge the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) uses to protect information protected under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) from a six month emergency approval under OMB Control Number 1905-0211 to permanent status for the Information Collections listed in the table below. This request is due to an unanticipated event from a recent change in the law that affects the confidentiality pledges that EIA uses in surveys protected under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA).

The Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 permits and requires Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide Federal civilian agencies’ information technology systems with cybersecurity protection for their Internet traffic. The purpose of this clearance request is to implement a permanent change in the CIPSEA pledge used by EIA. The modified pledge notifies respondents of the security monitoring activities by DHS. These information collections support EIA’s ability to assess energy supply and consumption for the nation and are essential to EIA’s mission to collect, analyze, and disseminate independent and impartial energy information.

OMB NUMBER	TITLE OF SURVEY
1905-0174	Form EIA-863, “Petroleum Product Sales Identification Survey”
1905-0174	Form EIA-878, “Motor Gasoline Price Survey”
1905-0174	Form EIA-888, “On-Highway Diesel Fuel Price Survey”
1905-0175	Form EIA-910, “Monthly Natural Gas Marketers Survey”
1905-0175	Form EIA-912, “Weekly Underground Natural Gas Storage Report”
1905-0205	Form EIA-914, “Monthly Crude Oil, Lease Condensate, and Natural Gas Production Report”
1905-0160	Form EIA-851Q, “Domestic Uranium Production Report – Quarterly”
1905-0160	Form EIA-851A, “Domestic Uranium Production Report – Annual”
1905-0160	Form EIA-858, “Uranium Marketing Annual Survey”
1905-0145	Form EIA-871, “Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey”
1905-0092	Form EIA-457, “Residential Energy Consumption Survey”

As per OMB instruction, this single ICR is being submitted to make permanent the modification to the CIPSEA confidentiality pledges for all the above listed packages and will not otherwise affect the content, scope, burden, or the current expiration dates of any of these packages.

More specifically, the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 mandates that Federal information systems be protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Approval of this ICR is necessary to implement a permanent change to the CIPSEA pledge to notify respondents of the cyber security monitoring. EIA was required to implement Einstein by December 18, 2016, in accordance with the law.

A. Justification

1. Necessity of Collection:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

2. Description of the Information Collected:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

3. Use of Technology to Reduce Burden:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

4. Identification of Duplication and Availability or Similar Information:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

5. Small Businesses:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

6. Less Frequent Conduct of Study:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

7. Special Circumstances:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

8. Consultation with Persons Outside EIA:

EIA published a 60-day Federal Register Notice on March 1, 2017 at 82 Fed. Reg. 12217. EIA did not receive any comments in response to this federal register notice.

9. Gifts or Payments to Respondents:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

10. Confidential Responses:

The Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) safeguards the confidentiality of individually identifiable information acquired under a pledge of confidentiality by controlling access to, and uses made of, such information. CIPSEA includes fines and penalties for any knowing and willful disclosure of individually identifiable information by an officer, employee, or agent of EIA.

As required by the passage of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, the Federal Statistical community has implemented the DHS’ Einstein Cybersecurity Protection Program and is modifying the CIPSEA pledge language to notify respondents of this monitoring. EIA will use the following pledge for protecting information collected under the CIPSEA statute:

“The information you provide on Form EIA-xxx will be used for statistical purposes only and is confidential by law.  In accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 and other applicable Federal laws, your responses will not be disclosed in identifiable form without your consent.  Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, Federal information systems are protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Every EIA employee, as well as every agent, is subject to a jail term, a fine, or both if he or she makes public ANY identifiable information you reported.”

A shorter version of the CIPSEA pledge is used for telephone surveys:

“The information you provide on Form EIA-xxx will be used for statistical purposes only and is confidential by law. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, Federal information systems are protected from malicious activities through cybersecurity screening of transmitted data. Every EIA employee, as well as every agent, is subject to a jail term, a fine, or both if he or she makes public ANY identifiable information you reported.”

11. Sensitive Questions:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

12. Burden of Collection:

No change from currently approved underlying packages. (Due to system limitations, a burden of 1 response requiring 5 minutes has been entered into the database.)

13. Capital/Start-up Cost

There are no capital/start-up costs in any of the currently approved underlying packages.

14. Cost to the Federal Government:

No change from currently approved underlying packages.

15. Changes in Burden:

There is no change in respondent burden for the currently approved underlying packages by the addition of the new sentence notifying survey respondents of DHS security monitoring of transmissions to and from EIA’s data systems.

16. Publication Plans/Schedule:

No change to plans from the currently approved underlying packages.

17. OMB Approval Expiration Date:

No change to current requests not to display the expiration dates for the currently approved underlying packages.

18. Exception to Certification Statement:

There are no exceptions to the certification statement.

Part B—Statistical Methods

The Agency has determined Part B is not needed for this ICR, as there is no change to the statistical methods from those in the currently approved underlying packages.

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