Coordination of Federal Transmission Authorizations
Section 216(h) Federal Power Act
| NEW! The public comment periods for submittals of responses to the Federal Register Notices regarding Coordination of Federal Authorizations for Electric Transmission Facilities (see RELATED DOCUMENTS, on the right) close Monday, October 20, 2008, for the Interim Final Rule and Monday, November 3, 2008, for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The comments that have been received to date are available as follows:
NOTICE TO COMMENTERS:
Comments will be made available to the public. Accordingly, please note that submitted comments should be devoid of all proprietary and confidential information.
Also, please note that comments submitted by U.S. Postal Service regular mail delivery are subject to extended delays due to security screening. For purposes of compliance with the comment period deadlines of October 20, 2008 (Interim Final Rule) and November 3, 2008 (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), mailed comments will be considered received as of the date the comments are received at the DOE mailroom. In addition, CD-ROMs and DVDs provided in regular mail delivery are destroyed by the screening process. Accordingly, you are encouraged to submit comments electronically or by overnight express service.
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The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) (PDF 2.5 MB) declares that it is a national policy to enhance and, to the extent possible, increase the coordination and communication among Federal agencies with authority to site electric transmission facilities. Section 1221(a) of EPAct 2005/section 216(h) of the Federal Power Act stated that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to coordinate all Federal authorizations and related environmental reviews needed for siting interstate electric transmission projects, including National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) reviews. The purpose of this coordination is to streamline agencies' review processes and avoid duplication among Federal agencies.
An inter-agency Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) (PDF 5.1 MB) has been agreed upon by DOE and eight other Federal agencies to guide the coordination process. The MOU establishes a framework to expedite all applicable land use authorizations; related environmental, cultural, and historic preservation reviews; and any other approvals that may be required under Federal law in order to site an electric transmission facility. DOE has delegated coordination of reviews for projects in National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). DOE and FERC will seek to make their coordination processes as similar as possible.
DOE has issued an interim final rule and a notice of proposed rulemaking to further implement its responsibilities under section 216(h). Both documents were published for comment in the Federal Register on September 19, 2008 (73 FR 54456). DOE is providing a summary of these documents for your information.
Comments on the interim final rule are due by October 20, 2008. Comments on the NOPR are due by November 3, 2008. We encourage respondents to submit comments electronically at SEC216h@hq.doe.gov to ensure timely receipt. DOE will review and consider all timely comments in determining whether revisions of the proposed rule or the interim final rule are warranted. Any comments received by DOE will be available for public review. A link to comments received for either the interim final rule or the NOPR will be provided on this webpage.
The policies set forth by Congress in EPAct reinforce previous policies announced in Executive Order 13212 (PDF 28 KB), which was issued on May 18, 2001, by mandating each agency with the authority to issue Federal authorizations to ensure the timely and coordinated review and permitting of electric transmission facilities.
DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability currently grants Presidential permits for the construction, operation, maintenance, and connection of electric transmission facilities at the United States international border.
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