Notice2022-02088
Public Workshop on Corporate Average Fuel Economy Reporting Templates
Primary source
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Published
February 2, 2022
Issuing agencies
Transportation DepartmentNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Abstract
This notice announces that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be postponing the workshop originally scheduled for January 27, 2022. The workshop was intended to present three new compliance reporting templates for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Program. The workshop will be rescheduled for later this year.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 22 (Wednesday, February 2, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 2, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5936-5937]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-02088]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Public Workshop on Corporate Average Fuel Economy Reporting
Templates
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notification to postpone public workshop.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces that the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) will be postponing the workshop originally
scheduled for January 27, 2022. The workshop was intended to present
three new compliance reporting templates for the Corporate Average Fuel
Economy (CAFE) Program. The workshop will be rescheduled for later this
year.
DATES: NHTSA will reschedule the workshop for later this year.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions concerning the
public workshop postponement, please contact NHTSA staff at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#2f61677b7c6e016c4042425a41464c4e5b4640416f4b405b01484059"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5c1214080f1d721f3331312932353f3d283533321c383328723b332a">[email protected]</span></a> or Chris Lamance at (202) 366-9525. For any
legal questions, contact Michael Kuppersmith at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#0c61656f646d69602267797c7c697e7f616578644c686378226b637a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a0cdc9c3c8c1c5cc8ecbd5d0d0c5d2d3cdc9d4c8e0c4cfd48ec7cfd6">[email protected]</span></a> or (202) 366-9957. For questions concerning
the workshop discussions contact Maurice Hicks at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#8bc6eafef9e2e8eea5c3e2e8e0f8cbefe4ffa5ece4fd"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2a674b5f5843494f0462434941596a4e455e044d455c">[email protected]</span></a>
or (202) 366-5289.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 49 CFR part 537, ``Automotive Fuel Economy
Report,'' requires manufacturers to provide early model year
projections on automobiles demonstrating how they intend to comply with
CAFE standards. The regulation requires manufacturers to submit a pre-
model year report by December 31st before the model year and a mid-
model year report by July 31st of the model year. When NHTSA received
and reviewed manufacturers' projection reports for MYs 2013 through
2015, the agency observed that most did not conform to the requirements
specified in Part 537. In a 2015 notice of proposed rulemaking, NHTSA
proposed to amend Part 537 to require a new data format for
manufacturers' CAFE projection reporting template.\1\ However, NHTSA
did not adopt the proposed data format from the 2015 proposed rule
after receiving adverse comments from manufacturers.\2\
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\1\ 80 FR 40540 (Jul. 13, 2015).
\2\ 81 FR 73958 (Oct. 25, 2016).
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After identifying the sources of manufacturers' concerns, in the
April 2020 CAFE final rule, NHTSA established a new standardized
template for reporting PMY and MMY information, as specified in 49 CFR
537.7(b) and (c), as well as for the supplementary information required
by 49 CFR 537.8. The new template allows manufacturers to build out the
required confidential versions of CAFE reports specified in 49 CFR part
537 and to produce automatically the required non-confidential versions
by clicking a button within the template. The standardized template
assists manufacturers in providing the agency with all necessary data,
thereby helping manufacturers to ensure they are complying with CAFE
regulations. The template organizes the required data in a manner
consistent with NHTSA and EPA regulations and simplifies the reporting
process by incorporating standardized responses consistent with those
provided to EPA. The template collects the relevant data, calculates
intermediate and final values in accordance with EPA and NHTSA
methodologies, and aggregates all the final values required by NHTSA
regulations in a single summary worksheet. Thus, NHTSA believes that
the standardized template will benefit both the agency and
manufacturers by helping to avoid reporting errors, such as data
omissions and miscalculations, and will ultimately simplify and
streamline reporting. NHTSA requires that manufacturers use the
standardized Projection Reporting Template for all PMY, MMY, and
supplementary CAFE reports beginning in MY 2023. NHTSA also modified
its existing compliance database to accept and import the standardized
template and automatically aggregate manufacturers' data. This allows
NHTSA to execute its regulatory obligations to the public more
efficiently and effectively. Overall, the template helps to ensure
compliance with data requirements under EPCA/EISA and drastically
reduce the industry and government's burden for reporting in accordance
with the Paperwork Reduction Act.\3\ The reporting template is
available for download through the PIC located at: <a href="https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home">https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home</a>--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE
Projections Reporting Template''.
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\3\ 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.
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To reduce the burden on all parties, encourage compliance, and
facilitate quicker NHTSA credit transaction approval, in April 2020
final rule, NHTSA added a new template to standardize the information
parties submit to the agency to request a credit transaction. Often
manufacturers inconsistently submit the information required by 49 CFR
536.8, making it difficult for NHTSA to process transactions. The
credit transaction template is a simple spreadsheet that credit holders
and trading parties fill out. When completed, parties are able to click
a button on the spreadsheet to generate a credit transaction summary,
and if applicable, credit trade confirmation, the latter of which needs
to be signed by both trading entities. The credit trade confirmation
serves as an acknowledgement that the parties have agreed to trade
credits. The completed credit trade summary, and a PDF copy of the
signed trade confirmation must be submitted to NHTSA. Using the Credit
Transaction Template simplifies the credit trading process for OVSC and
manufacturers, and helps to ensure that trading parties follow the
requirements for a credit transaction found in 49 CFR 536.8(a).\4\
Additionally, the credit trade confirmation includes an acknowledgement
of the ``error or fraud'' provisions in 49 CFR 536.8(f)-(g), and the
finality provision of 49 CFR 536.8(g). The credit transaction template
is available for download through the PIC located at: <a href="https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home">https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home</a>--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE
Credit Transaction Template''.
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\4\ Submitting a properly completed template and accompanying
transaction letter will satisfy the trading requirements in 49 CFR
part 536.
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Finally, NHTSA adopted requirements in the 2020 final rule
requiring manufacturers to submit the costs of all credit trade
contracts to the agency starting September 1, 2022. NHTSA intends to
use this information to determine the true cost of compliance for all
manufacturers. This information would allow NHTSA to better assess the
impact of its regulations on the industry and provide more insightful
information in developing future rulemakings. NHTSA also adopted
requirements allowing manufacturers to submit the information
confidentially, in accordance with 49 CFR part 512.\5\ This
confidential information would be held by secure electronic means in
NHTSA's database systems. As for public information, NHTSA intends to
use the information to provide more credit reports on the PIC such as
aggregated credit transactions or data comparable to the credit
information which EPA makes available to the public.
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\5\ See also 49 U.S.C. 32910(c).
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In response to NHTSA new templates, manufacturers have identified
errors and offered suggestions for improvements. As a result, in the
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August 2021 CAFE NPRM,\6\ NHTSA proposed changes to its new reporting
and credit templates as well as established a new standardized template
to collect information on the monetary and non-monetary costs of credit
trades. NHTSA has identified a series of monetary and non-monetary
factors which it believes to be important to the costs associated with
credit trading in the CAFE program which predicated the development of
its new credit value template.\7\ The agency believes this information
will allow for a better assessment of the true costs of compliance.
NHTSA further notes that greater government oversight is needed over
the CAFE credit market and it needs to understand the full range of
complexity in transactions, monetary and non-monetary, in addition to
the range of partnerships and cooperative agreements between credit
account holders--which may impact the price of credit trades.\8\ NHTSA
proposed that manufacturers should start using both credit templates
starting September 1, 2022. Note, the credit value template is
available for download through the PIC located at: <a href="https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home">https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home</a>--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE
Credit Value Reporting Template''.
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\6\ <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2021-0053-0012/comment">https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2021-0053-0012/comment</a>.
\7\ UCS, Detailed Comments, NHTSA-2018-0067-12039; Jason
Schwartz, Detailed Comments, NHTSA-2018-0067-12162.
\8\ Honda, Detailed Comments, NHTSA-2018-0067-11819.
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In the August 2021 rulemaking, NHTSA also committed to demonstrate
its templates through a workshop designed to give manufacturers an open
forum for communicating directly with the agency.
Otto G. Matheke, III,
Director of the Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2022-02088 Filed 2-1-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P
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