Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non- Discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

18 CFR Part 35

[Docket Nos. RM95-8-000 and RM94-7-001]

Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-

Discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery of

Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities

November 17, 1995.

AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Proposed rule; availability of draft environment impact

statement.

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SUMMARY: The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has

prepared a draft environmental impact statement for the proposed

rulemaking in this proceeding to satisfy the requirements of the

National Environmental Policy Act.

DATES: Comments are due on or before January 8, 1996.

ADDRESSES: 888 First Street NE., Washington, D.C. 20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. William Meroney, DEIS Project Manager, Office of Economic Policy,

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE., Washington,

D.C. 20426.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to publishing the full text of

this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all

interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of

this document during normal business hours in the Public Reference Room

at 888 First Street NE., Washington, D.C. 20426.

The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS), an electronic

bulletin board service, provides access to the text of formal documents

issued by the Commission. CIPS is available at no charge to the user

and may be accessed using a personal computer with a modem by dialing

(202) 208-1397 or (800) 856-3920. To access CIPS, set your

communications software to 19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400,

or 1200 bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. The

full text of this document will be available on CIPS in ASCII and

WordPerfect 5.1 format. The complete text on diskette in WordPerfect

format may also be purchased from the Commission's copy contractor, La

Dorn Systems Corporation, also located in the Public Reference Room at

888 First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426.

The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has prepared

a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed

rulemaking referenced above to satisfy the requirements of the National

Environmental Policy Act.

On July 12, 1995, the Commission issued a Notice of Intent to

Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Notice of Proposed

Rulemaking and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues (NOI) (60

FR 36752, July 18, 1995).\1\ The NOI described proposed cases for

examination and established a procedure for public comments. Thirty-six

comments were received in response to the NOI. A public meeting was

held on September 8, 1995, in Washington, D.C. The most frequently

raised issue involves air quality impacts, particularly the possible

transport of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by Midwestern generating

plants to airsheds in the Northeast and the resulting impacts on ozone

non-attainment areas in the Northeast.

\1\ The proposed rule in this proceeding was published April 7,

1995 (60 FR 17662).

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Based on the comments and a careful analysis of the major issues,

the staff developed a study that addresses the key potential

environmental impacts of the rulemaking. The staff used a modeling

approach that includes a detailed representation of the transmission

grid. The model results and other analyses allow the staff to examine a

series of other issues, including visibility; impacts on land, water

and waste; and some potential mitigation options.

The DEIS has been placed in the public files of the FERC and is

available for public inspection at:

[[Page 58305]]

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Public Reference and Files

Maintenance Branch, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426,

(202) 208-1371.

Copies of the DEIS have been mailed to Federal agencies and

individuals who requested copies of the DEIS in response to the NOI.

The DEIS will be available to the public on the Commission Posting

System (CIPS). CIPS is an electronic bulletin board service which

provides access to the text of formal documents issued by the

Commission. CIPS is available at no charge to the user and may be

accessed using a personal computer with a modem by dialing (202) 208-

1397 or (800) 856-3920. To access CIPS, set your communications

software to 19200, 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, or 1200 bps,

full duplex, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit.

Written comments are welcome on the DEIS. Please take notice that

all written comments on specific environmental issues should contain

supporting documentation and rationale. Written comments must be filed

on or before January 8, 1996, reference Docket Nos. RM95-8-000 and

RM94-7-001, and be addressed to:

Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888

First Street NE., Washington, D.C. 20426.

A copy of any comments should also be sent to:

Mr. William Meroney, DEIS Project Manager, Office of Economic

Policy, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20426.

In addition, commenters are asked to submit their written comments

on a 3\1/2\-inch diskette formatted for MS-DOS based computers. In

light of our ability to translate MS-DOS based materials, the text need

only be submitted in the format and version that it was generated

(i.e., MS Word, WordPerfect, ASCII, etc.). It is not necessary to

reformat word processor generated text to ASCII. For Macintosh users,

it would be helpful to save the documents in Macintosh word processor

format and then write them to files on a diskette formatted for MS-DOS

machines.

After the comments are reviewed, any significant new issues are

investigated, and modifications are made to the DEIS, a final EIS will

be published and distributed by the staff. The final EIS will contain

the staff's responses to timely comments received on the DEIS.

Lois D. Cashell,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 95-28846 Filed 11-24-95; 8:45 am]

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