Greenkraft Inc.; Receipt of Application for Temporary Exemption From FMVSS No. 108 |
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Topics: Greenkraft
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Christopher J. Bonanti
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
February 21, 2013
[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 35 (Thursday, February 21, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12138-12140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-03950]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
[Docket No. NHTSA-2013-0019]
Greenkraft Inc.; Receipt of Application for Temporary Exemption
From FMVSS No. 108
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of receipt of petition for a temporary exemption from
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108, Lamps,
Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the procedures in 49 CFR Part 555,
Greenkraft, Inc. has applied for a temporary exemption for its 1061 and
1082 model trucks from the requirements of paragraph S7 of FMVSS No.
108 applicable to headlamps. The basis of the application is that the
exemption would make development or field evaluation of a low-emission
vehicle easier without unreasonably lowering the safety performance of
the vehicle.
NHTSA is publishing this notice of receipt of the application in
accordance with the requirements of 49 U.S.C. 30113(b)(2), and has made
no judgment on the merits of the application.
DATES: You should submit your comments not later than March 25, 2013.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Healy, Office of the Chief
Counsel, NCC-112, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200
New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building 4th Floor, Room W41-212,
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone: (202) 366-2992; Fax: (202) 366-3820.
Comments: We invite you to submit comments on the application
described above. You may submit comments identified by the docket
number at the heading of this notice by any of the following methods:
Web Site: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments on the electronic docket site by
clicking
[[Page 12139]]
on ``Help and Information'' or ``Help/Info.''
Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
Mail: U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket
Operations, M-30, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington,
DC 20590.
Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and
docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without
change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion below. We
will consider all comments received before the close of business on the
comment closing date indicated above. To the extent possible, we will
also consider comments filed after the closing date.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at any time or to
1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140,
Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays. Telephone: (202) 366-9826.
Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on
April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit
http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.
Confidential Business Information: If you wish to submit any
information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit three
copies of your complete submission, including the information you claim
to be confidential business information, to the Chief Counsel, NHTSA,
at the address given under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. In
addition, you should submit two copies, from which you have deleted the
claimed confidential business information, to Docket Management at the
address given above. When you send a comment containing information
claimed to be confidential business information, you should include a
cover letter setting forth the information specified in our
confidential business information regulation (49 CFR Part 512).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Statutory Basis for Temporary Exemptions
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Safety Act),
codified as 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301, authorizes the Secretary of
Transportation to exempt, on a temporary basis and under specified
circumstances, motor vehicles from a motor vehicle safety standard or
bumper standard. This authority is set forth at 49 U.S.C. 30113. The
Secretary has delegated the authority in this section to NHTSA.
NHTSA established 49 CFR part 555, Temporary Exemption from Motor
Vehicle Safety and Bumper Standards, to implement the statutory
provisions concerning temporary exemptions. A vehicle manufacturer
wishing to obtain an exemption from a standard must demonstrate in its
application (A) that an exemption would be in the public interest and
consistent with the Safety Act and (B) that the manufacturer satisfies
one of the following four bases for an exemption: (i) Compliance with
the standard would cause substantial economic hardship to a
manufacturer that has tried to comply with the standard in good faith;
(ii) the exemption would make easier the development or field
evaluation of a new motor vehicle safety feature providing a safety
level at least equal to the safety level of the standard; (iii) the
exemption would make the development or field evaluation of a low-
emission motor vehicle easier and would not unreasonably lower the
safety level of that vehicle; or (iv) compliance with the standard
would prevent the manufacturer from selling a motor vehicle with an
overall safety level at least equal to the overall safety level of
nonexempt vehicles.
For an exemption petition to be granted on the basis that the
exemption would make the development or field evaluation of a low-
emission motor vehicle easier and would not unreasonably lower the
safety level of the vehicle, the petition must include specified
information set forth at 49 CFR 555.6(c). The main requirements of that
section include: (1) Substantiation that the vehicle is a low-emission
vehicle; (2) documentation establishing that a temporary exemption
would not unreasonably degrade the safety of a vehicle; (3)
substantiation that a temporary exemption would facilitate the
development or field evaluation of the vehicle; (4) a statement of
whether the petitioner intends to conform to the standard at the end of
the exemption period; and (5) a statement that not more than 2,500
exempted vehicles will be sold in the United States in any 12-month
period for which an exemption may be granted.
II. Greenkraft's Petition
Greenkraft is petitioning the agency for a temporary exemption from
the provisions in FMVSS No. 108 applicable to headlamp photometry on
the basis that ``the exemption would make the development or field
evaluation of a low-emission motor vehicle easier and would not
unreasonably lower the safety level of that vehicle.'' 49 U.S.C.
30113(b)(3)(B)(iii). The agency received Greenkraft's petition October
24, 2012. Greenkraft has requested that, if granted, the exemption
period begin immediately.
Greenkraft plans to produce trucks that run on compressed natural
gas engines with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of over 14,000
pounds under the requested exemption. Greenkraft is requesting a three-
year exemption and plans to produce 2,300 vehicles during the exemption
period. Greenkraft states in the petition that it plans to comply with
FMVSS No. 108 at the end of the exemption period.
A. Low Emission Vehicle
In order to be eligible for a temporary exemption on the grounds
that the exemption would make development or field evaluation of a low-
emission vehicle easier without unreasonably lowering the safety
performance of the vehicle, the applicant must substantiate that the
vehicle is a low-emission vehicle. In order to qualify as a low-
emission vehicle, the vehicle must meet the applicable standards for
new motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7521, et seq. and
emit an air pollutant in an amount significantly below one of those
standards. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulations
issued pursuant to the Clean Air Act establish exhaust emissions
thresholds for heavy-duty low-emission vehicles. These exhaust emission
thresholds require that a heavy duty low emission vehicle emit combined
emissions of oxides of nitrogen and nonmethane hydrocarbons (or
nonmethane hydrocarbon equivalent) of 3.8 grams or less per brake
horsepower-hour or combined emissions of oxides of nitrogen and
nonmethane hydrocarbons (or nonmethane hydrocarbon equivalent) of 3.5
grams or less per brake horsepower-hour when tested (certified) on fuel
[[Page 12140]]
meeting the specifications of California certification fuel. 40 CFR
88.105-94.
Greenkraft submitted a certification from the California
Environmental Protection Agency's Air Resources Board to substantiate
that the vehicle that is the subject of the application is a low
emissions vehicle. The Air Resources Board certification states that
the vehicle's combined emissions of oxides of nitrogen and nonmethane
hydrocarbons are 0.13 grams per brake horsepower-hour.
B. Statement That a Temporary Exemption Would Not Unreasonably Degrade
Safety
The requirements from which Greenkraft seeks a temporary exemption
are the Upper Beam 3 requirements in Table XVIII and Lower
Beam 3V requirements in Table XIX-b. Greenkraft states in its
application for a temporary exemption that the only difference between
Greenkraft's low-emission vehicle if exempted and a compliant vehicle
is that the headlamps on Greenkraft's low-emission vehicle fail to meet
the minimum candela requirements for two upper beam test points and six
lower beam test points and exceeds the maximum candela requirement for
one upper beam test point for visually/optically aimed headlamps.
Greenkraft attached to its application for an exemption a test report
from a test laboratory showing that the headlamps on the vehicles that
would be the subject of the exemption fail to meet the upper and lower
beam requirements for optically and visually aimed headlamps.
Greenkraft states in the application that granting the exemption would
not unreasonably degrade the safety of the vehicle because the lamps
provide ``excellent illumination'' even though they do not comply with
the photometric requirements of FMVSS No. 108.
C. Substantiation That a Temporary Exemption Would Facilitate the
Development of a Low Emissions Vehicle
Greenkraft states that a temporary exemption would facilitate the
development of low-emission vehicles by allowing Greenkraft to redesign
the headlamp without interrupting the development of the vehicle while
the headlamp is being redesigned. Greenkraft further claims that, by
beginning development promptly, it can receive critical data and test
results to further the development of natural gas powered vehicles.
D. Public Interest
Greenkraft states that granting the temporary exemption would be in
the public interest because the exemption would help increase the
availability of low-emission natural gas power vehicles to businesses
in the United States. Greenkraft states that this would reduce the
United States' dependence on foreign oil.
III. Issuance of Notice of Final Action
Upon receiving a petition, NHTSA conducts an initial review of the
petition with respect to whether the petition is complete and whether
the petitioner appears to be eligible to apply for the requested
petition. The agency has tentatively concluded that the petition is
complete and that the petitioner is eligible to apply for the requested
exemption. The agency has not made any judgment on the merits of the
application and is placing a non-confidential copy of the petition in
the docket.
We are providing a 30-day comment period. After considering public
comments and other available information, we will publish a notice of
final action on the application in the Federal Register.
Issued in Washington, DC, on February 12, 2013 under authority
delegated in 49 CFR 1.95.
Christopher J. Bonanti,
Associate Administrator for Rulemaking.
[FR Doc. 2013-03950 Filed 2-20-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P