[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 176 (Tuesday, September 13, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-22606]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: September 13, 1994]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Information Collection
AGENCY: Department of Energy (DOE).
ACTION: Notice of Information Collection.
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SUMMARY: This information collection will be used to explore two
methodological issues: whether survey methods show that nonuse values
exist for nonenvironmental goods (e.g., consumer willingness to pay to
prevent the job losses of others); and a comparison between alternative
survey instruments. See Supplementary Information.
DATES: Respondents are requested to submit two copies of all
correspondence related to this issue. Information should be submitted
within 15 days of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.
If you expect that you will be submitting information, but find it
difficult to do so within the 15-day time period, please advise the
contact, listed below, of your intentions.
ADDRESSES: Comments and suggestions should be submitted in writing to:
Ms. Peggy Podolak, Office of Economic Analysis and Competition (PO-61),
Office of Policy, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20585, FAX (202) 586-5391.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be directed to Ms. Peggy Podolak, at the above address, or by
telephone at (202) 586-6430.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Energy (DOE) is funding a
methodological study on nonuse values. A nonuse value is a measure of
people's willingness to pay to preserve the mere existence of something
even though they never plan to own, use, or directly benefit from it.
The first portion of the study addreses whether such values exist for
nonenvironmental services, such as jobs of others outside one's
community. In the second portion of the study, willingness-to-pay for
single items considered individually will be compared to willingness-
to-pay for the same items when bundled. These methodological questions
will be evaluated in a trade-off context, with the Columbia River Basin
in the Pacific Northwest as the subject of the study.
This study is being performed solely to address methodological
issues surrounding the estimation of nonuse values and will not be used
for any other purpose. In particular, DOE seeks to ascertain whether
individuals who state positive nonuse values for environmental services
also state positive nonuse values for nonenvironmental services and how
different survey methods perform to elicit willingness-to-pay
valuations.
The method used here will be a paper-and-pencil survey administered
in a shopping mall in or near Raleigh, North Carolina. Recruiters will
approach shoppers and ask if they are willing to take the survey. It
will take approximately one-half hour for each of the anticipated 200
respondents to complete the questionnaire, for a total information
collection burden of 100 hours.
DOE recognizes that the use of the mall-intercept approach which is
necessitated by the Department's limited resources for this research
entails statistical problems that render problematic any extrapolation
of survey results to a population or subpopulation other than the
actual individuals sampled. Thus, the results of this survey will be
used solely to guide future research and advance the development of
methods for estimating nonuse values, and will not be used for policy
purposes related to any rulemaking, natural resource damage assessment,
or other substantive government program. DOE believes that the
practical utility of this research justifies the small burdens it
imposes on respondents.
Issued in Washington, DC on September 1, 1994.
Abraham E. Haspel,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic and Environmental Policy.
[FR Doc. 94-22606 Filed 9-12-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
