FERC-549C 30 day Notice (Published)

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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 26, 2022 / Notices

Æ Hand (including courier) delivery:
Deliver to: Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue,
Rockville, MD 20852.
Instructions: OMB submissions must
be formatted and filed in accordance
with submission guidelines at
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
Using the search function under the
‘‘Currently Under Review’’ field, select
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
click ‘‘submit,’’ and select ‘‘comment’’
to the right of the subject collection.
FERC submissions must be formatted
and filed in accordance with submission
guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov. For
user assistance, contact FERC Online
Support by email at ferconlinesupport@
ferc.gov, or by phone at: (866) 208–3676
(toll-free).
Docket: Users interested in receiving
automatic notification of activity in this
docket or in viewing/downloading
comments and issuances in this docket
may do so at https://www.ferc.gov/ferconline/overview.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ellen Brown may be reached by email

at DataClearance@FERC.gov, telephone
at (202) 502–8663.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. FERC–732
Title: FERC–732, Electric Rate
Schedule and Tariffs: Long-Term Firm
Transmission Rights in Organized
Electricity Markets
OMB Control No.: 1902–0245.
Type of Request: Three-year extension
of the FERC–732 information collection
requirement with no changes to the
current reporting requirements.
Abstract: 18 CFR part 42 provides the
reporting requirements of FERC–732 as
they pertain to long-term transmission
rights. To implement section 1233 1 of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct
2005),2 the Commission requires each
transmission organization that is a
public utility with one or more
organized electricity markets to make
available long-term firm transmission
rights that satisfy each of the
Commission’s guidelines.3
The FERC–732 regulations require
that transmission organizations (that are
public utilities with one or more

organized electricity markets) choose
one of two ways to file:
• File tariff sheets making long-term
firm transmission rights available that
are consistent with each of the
guidelines established by FERC.
• File an explanation describing how
their existing tariffs already provide
long-term firm transmission rights that
are consistent with the guidelines.
Additionally, the Commission
requires each transmission organization
to make its transmission planning and
expansion procedures and plans
available to the public. FERC–732
enables the Commission to exercise its
wholesale electric rate and electric
power transmission oversight and
enforcement responsibilities in
accordance with the FPA, the
Department of Energy Organization Act
(DOE Act), and EPAct 2005.
Type of Respondents: Public utility
with one or more organized electricity
markets
Estimate of Annual Burden: 4 The
Commission estimates the total burden
and cost 5 for this information collection
as follows.

FERC–732—ELECTRIC RATE SCHEDULES AND TARIFFS: LONG-TERM FIRM TRANSMISSION RIGHTS IN ORGANIZED
ELECTRICITY MARKETS

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1 16

U.S.C. 824.
U.S.C. 824q.
3 18 CFR 42.1(d).
4 Burden is defined as the total time, effort, or
financial resources expended by persons to
generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide
2 16

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Cost per
respondent
($)

(2)

(1) * (2) = (3)

(3) * (4) = (5)

(5) ÷ (1)

1

61

1,180 hrs.;
$102,660

$102,660

Number of
respondents

(1)
1

Public utility with one or more organized electricity markets ...................................................................................

Comments: Comments are invited on:
(1) Whether the collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
Commission, including whether the
information will have practical utility;
(2) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate
of the burden and cost of the collection
of information, including the validity of
the methodology and assumptions used;
(3) ways to enhance the quality, utility
and clarity of the information collection;
and (4) ways to minimize the burden of
the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including the use

Total number
of responses

Total annual
burden hours
and
total annual
cost
($)

Annual
number of
responses per
respondent

of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission

Dated: January 20, 2022.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022–01523 Filed 1–25–22; 8:45 am]

[Docket No. IC22–2–000]

Commission Information Collection
Activities (Ferc–549c) Comment
Request; Extension

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P

Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, Department of Energy.

AGENCY:

Notice of information collection
and request for comments.

ACTION:

information to or for a Federal agency. For further
explanation of what is included in the information
collection burden, refer to 5 CFR 1320.3.
5 FERC staff estimates that industry costs for
salary plus benefits are similar to Commission
costs. The FERC 2021 average salary plus benefits
for one FERC full-time equivalent (FTE) is

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$180,703/year (or $87.00/hour) posted by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Utilities sector
(available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/
naics3_221000.htm).
6 The ‘‘1’’ Tariff filing is a placeholder for future
fillers.

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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 26, 2022 / Notices
In compliance with the
requirements of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
(Commission or FERC) is soliciting
public comment on the currently
approved information collection, FERC–
549C, (Standards for Business Practices
of Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines),
which will be submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
review.

SUMMARY:

Comments on the collection of
information are due February 25, 2022.
ADDRESSES: Send written comments on
FERC–549C to OMB through
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission Desk Officer. Please
identify the OMB Control Number
(1902–0174) in the subject line of your
comments. Comments should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/
PRAMain.
Please submit copies of your
comments to the Commission. You may
submit copies of your comments
(identified by Docket No. IC22–2–000)
by one of the following methods:
Electronic filing through http://
www.ferc.gov, is preferred.
• Electronic Filing: Documents must
be filed in acceptable native
applications and print-to-PDF, but not
in scanned or picture format.
• For those unable to file
electronically, comments may be filed
by USPS mail or by hand (including
courier) delivery.
Æ Mail via U.S. Postal Service Only:
Addressed to: Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, Secretary of the
Commission, 888 First Street NE,
Washington, DC 20426.
Æ Hand (including courier) Delivery:
Deliver to: Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue,
Rockville, MD 20852.
Instructions: OMB submissions must
be formatted and filed in accordance
with submission guidelines at
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.
Using the search function under the
‘‘Currently Under Review’’ field, select
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
click ‘‘submit,’’ and select ‘‘comment’’
to the right of the subject collection.
FERC submissions must be formatted
and filed in accordance with submission
guidelines at: http://www.ferc.gov. For
user assistance, contact FERC Online
Support by email at ferconlinesupport@
ferc.gov, or by phone at: (866) 208–3676
(toll-free).
Docket: Users interested in receiving
automatic notification of activity in this
docket or in viewing/downloading

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DATES:

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comments and issuances in this docket
may do so at https://www.ferc.gov/ferconline/overview.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ellen Brown may be reached by email
at DataClearance@FERC.gov, telephone
at (202) 502–8663.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. FERC–549C
Title: FERC–549C, Standards for
Business Practices of Interstate Natural
Gas Pipelines.
OMB Control No.: 1902–0174.
Type of Request: Three-year extension
of the FERC–549C information
collection requirements with no changes
to the current reporting requirements.
No comments were received on the 60
day notice published on November 15,
2021 (86 FR 63010).
Abstract: The business practice
standards under FERC–549C are
required to carry out the Commission’s
policies in accordance with the general
authority in sections 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14,
16, and 20 of the Natural Gas Act
(NGA),1 and sections 311, 501, and 504
of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978
(NGPA).2 The Commission adopted
these business practice standards in
order to update and standardize the
natural gas industry’s business practices
and procedures in addition to
improving the efficiency of the gas
market and the means by which the gas
industry conducts business across the
interstate pipeline grid. In various
orders since 1996, the Commission has
adopted regulations to standardize the
business practices and communication
methodologies of interstate natural gas
pipelines proposed by the North
American Energy Standards Board
(NAESB) in order to create a more
integrated and efficient pipeline
industry.3 Generally, when and if
NAESB-proposed standards (e.g.,
consensus standards developed by the
Wholesale Gas Quadrant (WGQ) 4) are
approved by the Commission, the
Commission incorporates them by
reference into its approval. The process
of standardizing business practices in
the natural gas industry began with a
Commission initiative to standardize
electronic communication of capacity
release transactions. The outgrowth of
the initial Commission standardization
efforts produced working groups
15 U.S.C. 717c–717w.
15 U.S.C. 3301–3432.
3 This series of orders began with the
Commission’s issuance of Standards for Business
Practices of Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines, Order
No. 587, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,038 (1996).
4 An accredited standards organization under the
auspices of the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI).
1
2

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composed of all segments of the natural
gas industry. The Gas Industry
Standards Board (GISB) is a consensus
organization open to all members of the
gas industry was created. GISB was
succeeded by NAESB.
NAESB is a voluntary non-profit
organization comprised of members
from the retail and wholesale natural
gas and electric industries. NAESB’s
mission is to take the lead in developing
standards across these industries to
simplify and expand electronic
communication and to streamline
business practices. NAESB’s core
objective is to facilitate a seamless North
American marketplace for natural gas,
as recognized by its customers, the
business community, industry
participants, and regulatory bodies.
NAESB has divided its efforts among
four quadrants including two retail
quadrants, a wholesale electric
quadrant, and the WGQ. The NAESB
WGQ standards are a product of this
effort. Industry participants seeking
additional or amended standards (to
include principles, definitions,
standards, data elements, process
descriptions, and technical
implementation instructions) must
submit a request to the NAESB office,
detailing the change, so that the
appropriate process may take place to
amend the standards. Failure to collect
the FERC–549C data would prevent the
Commission from monitoring and
properly evaluating pipeline
transactions and/or meeting statutory
obligations under both the NGA and
NGPA.
On August 17, 2020, NAESB filed a
report informing the Commission that it
had adopted and ratified WGQ Version
3.2 of its business practice standards
applicable to interstate natural gas
pipelines. Version 3.2 of the WGQ
includes business practice standards
developed and modified in response to
industry requests and directives from
the NAESB Board of Directors. This
version also includes the standards
developed in response to the
recommendations of Sandia National
Laboratory (Sandia),5 which in 2019
issued a cybersecurity surety assessment
of the NAESB standards sponsored by
DOE (Sandia Surety Assessment),6 and
5 Sandia is a multidisciplinary national laboratory
and federally funded research and development
center for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE)
National Nuclear Security Administration that
supports numerous federal, state, and local
government agencies, companies, and
organizations.
6 In April 2017, NAESB announced that Sandia,
through funding provided by DOE, would be
performing a surety assessment of the NAESB
standards. As determined by Sandia and DOE, the

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4014

Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 17 / Wednesday, January 26, 2022 / Notices
summarizes the deliberations that led to
the changes being made. It also
identifies changes to the existing
standards that were considered but not
adopted due to a lack of consensus or
other reasons.

the standards developed to enable the
use of distributed ledger technologies
when transacting the NAESB Base
Contract for Sale and Purchase of
Natural Gas. The NAESB report
identifies all the changes made to the
WGQ Version 3.1 Standards and

Type of Respondents: Natural gas
pipelines under the jurisdiction of NGA
and NGPA.
Estimate of Annual Burden.7 The
Commission estimates the total annual
burden and cost for this information
collection as follows: 8

FERC–549C—STANDARDS FOR BUSINESS PRACTICES OF INTERSTATE NATURAL GAS PIPELINES

Number of
respondents

Average
number of
responses per
respondent

(1)

(2)

Total
annual burden
hours
and total
annual
cost

(1) * (2) = (3)

(3) * (4) = (5)

(5) ÷ (1)

Cost per
respondent
($)

Burden from Final Rule RM96–1–42
(NAESB Version 3.2) .....................

59.33

1

59.33

100 hrs.;
$9,407

5,933.33 hrs.;
$558,148.35

$9,407

Standards for Business Practices of
Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines ....

165

2.96

490

96 hrs.;
$9,030.72

47,040 hrs.;
$4,425,052.80

$26,818.50

Total for FERC–549C .................

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

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

549.33

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

52,973.33 hrs.;
$4,983,201.15

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

Comments: Comments are invited on:
(1) Whether the collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
Commission, including whether the
information will have practical utility;
(2) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate
of the burden and cost of the collection
of information, including the validity of
the methodology and assumptions used;
(3) ways to enhance the quality, utility
and clarity of the information collection;
and (4) ways to minimize the burden of
the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including the use
of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Dated: January 20, 2022.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2022–01519 Filed 1–25–22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717–01–P

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Total number
of responses

Average
burden and
cost per
response 9
(4)

purpose of the surety assessment was to analyze
cybersecurity elements within the standards,
focusing on four areas: (1) The NAESB Certification
Program for Accredited Certification Authorities,
including the Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ)012 Public Key Infrastructure Business Practice
Standards, the NAESB Accreditation Requirements
for Authorized Certificate Authorities, and the
Authorized Certification Authority Process; (2) the
WEQ Open Access Same-Time Information Systems
suite of standards; (3) the WGQ and Retail Markets
Quadrant internet Electronic Transport (IET) and
Quadrant Electronic Delivery Mechanism (EDM)
Related Standards Manual; and (4) a high-level
dependency analysis between the gas and electric
markets to evaluate the different security paradigms
the markets employ.
7 ‘‘Burden’’ is the total time, effort, or financial
resources expended by persons to generate,

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Schedule for Environmental Review

Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission

Issuance of the Notice of Availability of
the final EIS March 15, 2022
90-day Federal Authorization Decision
Deadline June 13, 2022

[Docket No. CP21–6–000]

Spire Storage West, LLC; Notice of
Revised Schedule for Environmental
Review of the Clear Creek Expansion
Project
This notice identifies the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission staff’s
revised schedule for the completion of
the environmental impact statement
(EIS) for Spire Storage West, LLC’s Clear
Creek Expansion Project. The first
notice of schedule, issued on August 26,
2021, identified January 21, 2022 as the
final EIS issuance date. However,
environmental staff is in the process of
assessing various alternatives raised
during the draft EIS comment period. As
a result, staff has revised the schedule
for issuance of the final EIS.
maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information
to or for a Federal agency. For further explanation
of what is included in the information collection
burden, refer to Title 5 Code of Federal Regulations
1320.3.
8 Commission staff estimates that the industry’s
skill set and cost (for wages and benefits) for FERC–
549C are approximately the same as the
Commission’s average cost. The FERC 2021 average
salary plus benefits for one FERC full-time
equivalent (FTE) is $180,703/year (or $87.00/hour)
posted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the
Utilities sector (available at https://www.bls.gov/
oes/current/naics3_221000.htm).
9 The estimated hourly cost (salary plus benefits)
provided in this section is based on the salary
figures for May 2021 posted by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics for the Utilities sector (available at http://

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If another schedule change becomes
necessary, an additional notice will be
provided so that the relevant agencies
are kept informed of the project’s
progress.
Additional Information
In order to receive notification of the
issuance of the EIS and to keep track of
all formal issuances and submittals in
specific dockets, the Commission offers
a free service called eSubscription. This
can reduce the amount of time you
spend researching proceedings by
automatically providing you with
notification of these filings, document
summaries, and direct links to the
documents. Go to https://www.ferc.gov/
www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm#13-0000)
and scaled to reflect benefits using the relative
importance of employer costs in employee
compensation from June 2021 (available at https://
www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics2_22.htm). The
hourly estimates for salary plus benefits are:
Petroleum Engineer (Occupation Code: 17–2171),
$74.20
Computer Systems Analysts (Occupation Code:
15–1120), $67.99
Legal (Occupation Code: 23–0000), $142.25
Economist (Occupation Code: 19–3011), $75.75
The average hourly cost (salary plus benefits) is
calculated weighting each of the aforementioned
wage categories as follows: $74.20 (0.3) + $142.25
(0.3) + $67.99 (0.15) + $75.75 (0.25) = $94.07.

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