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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 22 / Thursday, February 4, 2021 / Rules and Regulations but of unknown size installed, in backlog, or under award on three continents, our burden estimate of as many as five respondents self-certifying up to 600 units annually each is sufficiently large to encompass any such self-certifications.
Action: Revisions to existing information collection FERC556A.64
OMB Control No.: 19020316.
Respondents: Facilities that are selfcertifying their status as a cogenerator or that are submitting an application for Commission certification of their status as a cogenerator.
Frequency of Information: Ongoing.
Necessity of Information: The Commission directs the changes in this final rule in order to revise its implementation of PURPA in light of technological advancements in electric generation since the enactment of PURPA in 1978.
Internal Review: The Commission has reviewed the proposed changes and has determined that such changes are necessary. These requirements conform to the Commissions ongoing need for efficient information collection, communication, and management within the energy industry, in light of technological advancements in electric generation.
Interested persons may obtain information on the reporting requirements by contacting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888
First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426
Attention: Ellen Brown, Office of the Executive Director, by email to DataClearance@ferc.gov, or by phone 202 5028663.
Please send comments concerning the collection of information and the associated burden estimates to: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget Attention: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Desk Officer. Due to security concerns, comments should be sent directly to www.reginfo.gov/public/
do/PRAMain. Comments submitted to OMB should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice in the Federal Register and should refer to FERC556
OMB Control No. 19020075.
VII. Environmental Analysis
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38. The Commission is required to prepare an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement 64 The FERC Form No. 556 is not being revised, but respondents with fuel cell systems with integrated natural gas reformation equipment who are self-certifying or requesting Commission certification as a cogenerator will use the FERC
Form No. 556. On page 8, item 6a of the FERC Form No. 556, those respondents should indicate Fossil fuel, natural gas not waste.

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for any action that may have a significant adverse effect on the human environment.65 Whether and how the changes adopted here, however, would affect QF development and the environment is speculative.
39. The changes to the PURPA
Regulations do not authorize or fund particular generation that may happen to qualify as QFs, nor do they license or issue permits for operation of generation that may happen to qualify as QFs; such generation can be built and operated independent of, i.e., without, QF
certification. They do not authorize or prohibit a generators use of any particular technologies or fuels, nor do they mandate or limit where QFs should or should not be built. They do not exempt QFs from any Federal, state or local environmental, siting, or other similar laws or regulatory requirements.
Given these facts any environmental impact analysis of the revisions proposed here would be speculative and not meaningfully inform the Commission or the public of the revisions impact on QF development or, correspondingly, of any associated potential impacts on the environment;
there are, in short, no reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts for the Commission to consider.66
Moreover, the revisions proposed here would apply only to a limited number of QFs: Fuel cell systems with integrated hydrocarbon reformation equipment. Therefore, the Commission will not prepare an environmental document.
VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Act 40. The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 RFA 67 generally requires a description and analysis of final rules that will have significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. In lieu of preparing a regulatory flexibility analysis, an agency may certify that a proposed rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.68
41. The Small Business Administrations SBA Office of Size Standards develops the numerical definition of a small business.69 The 65 Regulations Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, Order No. 486, 52 FR
47,897 Dec. 17, 1987, FERC Stats. & Regs. 30,783
1987 cross-referenced at 41 FERC 61,284.
66 While courts have held that NEPA requires reasonable forecasting, an agency is not required to engage in speculative analysis or to do the impractical, if not enough information is available to permit meaningful consideration. N. Plains Res.
Council v. Surface Transp. Board, 668 F.3d 1067, 1078 9th Cir. 2011.
67 5 U.S.C. 60112.
68 5 U.S.C. 605b.
69 13 CFR 121.101.

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SBA size standard for electric utilities is based on the number of employees, including affiliates.70 Under SBAs current size standards, the threshold for a small entity including its affiliates is 250 employees for cogeneration in the NAICS 71 category: NAICS code 221118
for Other Electric Power Generation.
42. This rule directly affects cogeneration facilities, the majority of which the Commission estimates are small businesses. However, the Commission does not expect the revision to affect a substantial number of small entities. This final rule directly affects only certain QFs, i.e., those that are fuel cell systems with integrated steam hydrocarbon reformation equipment; this rule is voluntary. That is, this final rule expands the types of cogenerators that would be eligible to qualify as QFs to include fuel cell systems with integrated steam hydrocarbon reformation equipment, but this final rule does not require fuel cell systems with integrated steam hydrocarbon reformation equipment to file for QF certification. The Commission does not anticipate that the number of affected small entities would be substantial, nor does the Commission expect that any additional reporting burden or cost imposed on QFs, regardless of their status as a small or large business, would be significant.72
The Commission estimates that annual additional compliance costs on industry detailed above will be approximately $406,700 to comply with these requirements.
43. Accordingly, pursuant to section 605b of the RFA, the Commission certifies that this rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.
IX. Document Availability 44. In addition to publishing the full text of this document in the Federal Register, the Commission provides all interested persons an opportunity to view and/or print the contents of this 70 SBA final rule on Small Business Size Standards: Utilities, 78 FR 77,343 Dec. 23, 2013.
71 The North American Industry Classification System NAICS is an industry classification system that Federal statistical agencies use to categorize businesses for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S.
economy. United States Census Bureau, North American Industry Classification System, https
www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/ accessed October 4, 2020.
72 The average cost per response is estimated to vary from $124.50 for self-certifications to $4,150
for applications for FERC certification. The cost per respondent will vary based on the respondents number of facilities and related requests for selfcertification and applications for Commission certification with an estimated cost ranging from $2,490 to $74,700 per respondent.

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