[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69448-69449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27232]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Agency Information Collection Activities: Requests for Comments;
Clearance of New Approval of Information Collection: Carbon Offsetting
and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) Monitoring,
Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Program
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FAA
invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a new information collection.
The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting
comments on the following collection of information was published on
April 30, 2019. FAA received two comments to this notice. The
collection involves a request that airplane operators subject to the
applicability of Annex 16, Volume IV of the Convention on Civil
Aviation (hereinafter the ``Chicago Convention'') submit electronically
an Emissions Monitoring Plan (EMP) and an annual Emissions Report (ER)
to the FAA. The information to be collected is necessary because FAA
will use the information to fulfill the United States' responsibilities
under the Chicago Convention.
DATES: Written comments should be submitted by January 17, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on
the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. Comments should be
addressed to the attention of the Desk Officer, Department of
Transportation/FAA, and sent via electronic mail to
[email protected], or faxed to (202) 395-6974, or mailed to
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management
and Budget, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th St. NW, Washington, DC
20503.
Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of
this information collection, including (a) Whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for FAA's performance; (b) the
accuracy of the estimated burden; (c) ways for FAA to enhance the
quality, utility and clarity of the information collection; and (d)
ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the quality of
the collected information. The agency will summarize and/or include
your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this information
collection.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daniel Williams by email at:
[email protected]; phone: 202-267-7988.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
OMB Control Number: 2120-XXXX.
Title: Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International
Aviation (CORSIA) Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV)
Program.
Form Numbers: Not applicable.
Type of Review: Clearance of a new information collection.
Background: The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment
period soliciting comments on the following collection of information
was published on April 30, 2019 (84 FR 18,334). FAA received two
comments in response to this notice.
The CORSIA MRV Program is a voluntary program for certain U.S. air
carriers and commercial operators (collectively referred hereinafter as
``operators'') to submit certain airplane CO2 emissions data
to the FAA to enable the United States to establish uniformity with
ICAO Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPs) for CORSIA, which were
adopted in June 2018, as Annex 16, Volume IV to the Chicago Convention.
The United States supported the decision to adopt the CORSIA SARPs
based on the understanding that CORSIA is the exclusive market-based
measure applying to international aviation, and that CORSIA will ensure
fair and reciprocal commercial competition by avoiding a patchwork of
country- or regionally-based regulatory measures that are
inconsistently applied, bureaucratically costly, and economically
damaging. Furthermore, continued U.S. support for CORSIA assumes a high
level of participation by other countries, particularly by countries
with significant aviation activity, as well as a final CORSIA package
that is acceptable to, and implementable by, the United States.
Under CORSIA, all ICAO Member States whose airplane operators
undertake international flights will need to develop a MRV system for
CO2 emissions from those international flights starting
January 1, 2019. The FAA's CORSIA MRV Program is intended to be the
United States' MRV system for monitoring, reporting, and verification
of U.S. airplane operator CO2 emissions from international
flights.
Operators that are subject to the applicability of CORSIA will
submit their EMPs and ERs electronically.\1\ Both documents use
Microsoft Excel-based templates and can be transmitted via email or
uploaded to a web portal. EMPs that are submitted by operators will be
used as a collaborative tool between the operator and FAA to document a
given operator's chosen fuel use monitoring procedures. FAA will retain
a copy of the EMP and will share with ICAO a list of operators that
submit EMPs. FAA will not submit any specific EMPs from U.S. operators
to ICAO. Large operators, i.e., those emitting 500,000 metric tons or
more of CO2 per year, will gather data through a ``fuel use
monitoring method.'' Small operators, i.e., those emitting less than
500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, can use a simplified
monitoring method. Annual ERs that are submitted to FAA by operators
and verifiers will be used to document each operators' international
emissions. FAA will use the ERs to calculate aggregated emissions data
for all U.S. operators. FAA will submit the aggregated emissions data
to ICAO to demonstrate U.S. implementation of CORSIA.
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\1\ CORSIA applies to airplane operators that produce annual
CO2 emissions greater than 10,000 tonnes (i.e., 10,000
metric tons) from international flights, excluding emissions from
excluded flights. The following activities are excluded CORSIA:
--Domestic flights;
--Humanitarian, medical, and firefighting operations, including
flight(s) preceding or following a humanitarian, medical, or
firefighting flight provided such flight(s) were conducted with the
same airplane, were required to accomplish the related humanitarian,
medical, or firefighting activities or to reposition thereafter the
airplane for its next activity;
--Operations using an airplane with a maximum certificated take-
off mass equal to or less than 5,700 kg;
--Operations on behalf of the military.
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Respondents: Respondents will be airplane operators subject to the
applicability of Annex 16, Volume IV of the Chicago Convention. From
the outset, FAA expects between 11 and 49 operators to submit an EMP
and ER. Some additional operators could submit an EMP and ER over time
based on their international aviation activities.
Frequency: An EMP is a one-time submission. An ER is an annual
submission.
Estimated Average Burden per Response:
--For an EMP (one-time submission), FAA expects that filling and
submitting an EMP could on average take approximately 22.5 hours.
--For an ER (annual submission), FAA expects that the reporting burden
could be approximately 60 and 17.5 hours per operator for operators
using
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a Fuel Use Monitoring Method and operators using a simplified
Monitoring Method respectively.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on the above, FAA expects that
the annual submission of an EMP and ER could take approximately 33.5 to
107.5 hours for each of the 11 to 49 operators.
Issued in Washington, DC, on December 12, 2019.
Rebecca Cointin,
Director (Acting), Office of Environment and Energy.
[FR Doc. 2019-27232 Filed 12-17-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P