E7-13973. Commission Information Collection Activities, Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Extension

July 12, 2007.

AGENCY:

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the requirements of section 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3507, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) has submitted the information collection described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and extension of this information collection requirement. Any interested person may file comments directly with OMB and should address a copy of those comments to the Commission as explained below. The Commission received comments from an entity in response to an earlier Federal Register notice of April 14, 2007 (72 FR 19829-30) and has provided responses to the commenter in its submission to OMB. Copies of the submission were also submitted to the commenter.

DATES:

Comments on the collection of information are due by August 21, 2007.

ADDRESSES:

Address comments on the collection of information to the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Desk Officer. Comments to OMB should be filed electronically, c/o [e-mail] and include the OMB Control No. as a point of reference. The Desk Officer may be reached by telephone at 202-395-4650. A copy of the comments should also be sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of the Executive Director, ED-34, Attention: Michael Miller, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426. Comments may be filed either in paper format or electronically. Those persons filing electronically do not need to make a paper filing. For paper filings an original and 14 copies, of such comments should be submitted to the Secretary of the Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426 and should refer to Docket No. IC07-582-001.

Documents filed electronically via the Internet must be prepared in WordPerfect, MS Word, Portable Document Format, or ASCII format. To file the document, access the Commission's Web site at: http://www.ferc.gov and click on “Make an E-Filing,” and then follow the instructions for each screen. First time users will have to establish a user name and password. The Commission will send an automatic acknowledgement to the sender's e-mail address upon receipt of comments. User assistance for electronic filings is available at 202-502-8258 or by e-mail to: [e-mail]. Comments should not be submitted to this e-mail address.

All comments may be viewed, printed or downloaded remotely via the Internet through FERC's homepage using the “eLibrary” link. Enter the docket number excluding the last three digits in the docket number field to access the document. For user assistance, contact [e-mail] or toll-free at [phone]. or for TTY, contact [phone].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Miller may be reached by telephone at [phone], by fax at [phone], and by e-mail at: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Description

The information collection submitted for OMB review contains the following:

1. Collection of Information: FERC 582 “Electric Fees and Annual Charges.”

2. Sponsor: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

3. Control No. 1902-0132.

The Commission is now requesting that OMB approve and extend the expiration date for an additional three years with no changes to the existing collection. The information filed with the Commission is mandatory.

4. Necessity of the Collection of Information: Submission of the information is necessary for the Commission to carry out its responsibilities in implementing the statutory provisions of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952 (IOAA) (31 U.S.C. 9701) which authorizes the Commission to establish fees for its services. In addition, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (OBRA) (42 U.S.C. 7178) authorizes the Commission “to assess and collect fees and annual charges in any fiscal year in amounts equal to all the costs incurred by the Commission in that fiscal year.” In calculating annual charges, the Commission first determines the total costs of its electric regulatory program and then subtracts all electric regulatory program filing fee collections to determine the total collectible electric regulatory program costs. It then uses the data submitted under FERC information collection requirement FERC-582 to determine the total megawatt-hours of transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce. This is measured by the sum of the megawatt-hours of all unbundled transmission (including MWh delivered in wheeling transactions and MWh delivered in exchange transactions) and the megawatt-hours of all bundled wholesale power sales (to the extent these later megawatt-hours were not separately reported as unbundled transmission). This information must be reported to three (3) decimal places. Public utilities and power marketers subject to these annual charges must submit FERC-582 to the Secretary of the Commission by April 30 of each year. The Commission issues bills for annual charges, and public utilities and power marketers then must pay the charges within 45 days of the Commission's issuance of the bill.

The Commission's staff uses companies' financial information filed under waiver provisions to evaluate requests for a waiver or exemption of the obligation to pay a fee for an annual charge. The Commission implements these filing requirements in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) under 18 CFR part 381, sections 381.108, and 381.302 and part 382, section 382.201(c).

5. Respondent Description: The respondent universe currently comprises 125 companies (on average) subject to the Commission's jurisdiction.

6. Estimated Burden: 500 total hours, 125 respondents (average), 1 response per respondent, and 4 hours per response (rounded off and average time).

7. Estimated Cost Burden to Respondents: 500 hours/2080 hours per years × $122,137 per year = $ 29,360. The cost per respondent is equal to $235.

Statutory Authority: Statutory provisions of sections Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952 (IOAA) (31 U.S.C. 9701) which authorizes the Commission to establish fees for its services. In addition, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (OBRA) (42 U.S.C. 7178) authorizes the Commission “to assess and collect fees and annual charges in any fiscal year in amounts equal to all the costs incurred by the Commission in that fiscal year.”

Kimberly D. Bose,

Secretary.