Feb 21 -- The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance, a proposal for a three-year extension, with changes, of a collection of information that will provide DOE with the information necessary to meet its statutory and regulatory obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and the DOE NEPA implementing regulations, which requires EERE to perform environmental impact analyses prior to making a decision to provide Federal funding for research, development and demonstration projects funded by DOE. Comments regarding this proposed information collection must be received on or before April 1, 2024. [Comments due 30 days after submission to OMB on February 29.]
The DOE's EERE provides Federal funding through Federal assistance programs to businesses, industries, universities, and other groups for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development and demonstration projects. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) requires that an environmental analysis be completed for all major Federal actions significantly affecting the environment including projects entirely or partly financed by Federal agencies. To effectively perform environmental analyses for these projects, the DOE's EERE needs to collect project-specific information from Federal financial assistance awardees. DOE's EERE has developed its Environmental Questionnaire to obtain the required information and ensure that its decision-making processes are consistent with NEPA as it relates to renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development and demonstration projects.
Minor changes have been made to the Environmental Questionnaire that help to clarify certain questions as related to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), but do not change the meaning of the questions being asked. These revisions include additional fields in Section 1 to collect award, funding, and contact information and additional fields in Section 3 of the Environmental Questionnaire to collect information about project location(s).
EERE Project Mgt Center--NEPA:
https://www.eere-pmc.energy.gov/NEPA.aspx
EERE submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202402-1910-004 Click IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement. Submit comments through this webpage.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2024-03470
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806
