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Public Workshop on Corporate Average Fuel Economy Reporting Templates

Publication: Federal Register
Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Byline: Anne L. Collins
Date: 22 December 2021
Subjects: American Government , The Environment 
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 22, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72676-72678]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-27722]


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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 of public workshop.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces that the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration (NHTSA) will hold a workshop to present three new 
compliance reporting templates for the

[[Page 72677]]

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Program. The workshop will 
provide a demonstration of the use of the templates which automobile 
manufacturers will use to provide NHTSA required compliance data. 
Vehicle manufacturers and other interested parties who wish to attend 
the workshops are asked to pre-register (the workshop will be held 
virtually) and are invited to submit reporting questions and credit 
related technical issues to be considered for discussion during the 
workshops. Attendance requires electronic registration and confirmation 
in advance and is free.

DATES: NHTSA will hold the public workshop on Jan 27th, 2022, from 8:30 
a.m. to 4 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. Log-in on the day of the 
workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m.

ADDRESSES: The public workshop will be held virtually. Attendees should 
register online at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9085063788931066894, by January 13, 2022. Registration is necessary for 
all attendees. Please provide your name, email address, and 
affiliation. Interested parties wishing to submit comments or questions 
should submit their questions when they register. NHTSA will attempt to 
address those submissions as a part of the workshop. The Agency may 
also attempt to answer any questions that come up after January 13th, 
to the extent possible during the workshop. NHTSA also intends to 
publish FAQs on the templates following the workshop, which may also 
incorporate questions received during registration.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions about 
registering or connecting to the public workshop, please contact NHTSA 
staff at NHTSA.Communication@dot.gov or Chris LaMance at (202) 366-
9525. For any legal questions, contact Michael Kuppersmith at 
michael.kuppersmith@dot.gov or (202) 366-9957. For questions concerning 
the workshop discussions contact Maurice Hicks at Maurice.Hicks@dot.gov 
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: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home--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: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home--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

[[Page 72678]]

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 
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: https://one.nhtsa.gov/cafe_pic/home--see ``Light Duty Templates: NHTSA CAFE 
Credit Value Reporting Template''.
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    \6\ https://www.regulations.gov/document/NHTSA-2021-0053-0012/comment.
    \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. This notice satisfies 
that obligation and announces the details of the workshop.

Public Workshop Agenda

 8:30-9 a.m.--Welcome and Introductory Remarks
9-10a.m.--PMY/MMY Reporting Template (Part 1)
10-11 a.m.--PMY/MMY Reporting Template (Part 2-Examples)
11-11:30 a.m.--Credit Transaction Template
11:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Public Information Center Overview
12-1 p.m.--Lunch Break
1-2 p.m.--Credit Value Reporting Template
2-3 p.m.--FAQ Session
3-4 p.m.--CAFE 101--CAFE Compliance Process Overview

Participation in Virtual Public Hearing

    Please note that NHTSA is deviating from its typical approach for 
public hearings. Because of current CDC recommendations, as well as 
state and local orders for social distancing to limit the spread of 
COVID-19, NHTSA is not holding in-person public meetings at this time.
    If you do not receive your confirmation email(s), or have further 
questions about this hearing, please email NHTSA.Communication@dot.gov. 
NHTSA is committed to providing equal access to this event for all 
participants. People with disabilities who need additional 
accommodations should send a request to NHTSA.Communication@dot.gov no 
later than January 13th, 2022.

    Issued in Washington, DC, under authority delegated in 49 CFR 
1.95.
Anne L. Collins,
Associate Administrator for Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 2021-27722 Filed 12-21-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P




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