Dec 27 -- The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the Under Secretary for Infrastructure, invites comment to OMB by January 20, 2023 regarding its request for emergency approval of Output and Outcome Metrics for Financial Assistance and Rebates under Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs.
Given the historic level of investment represented by Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs, it is incumbent on DOE to transparently track, report, and communicate the outcomes of DOE's financial assistance and rebate programs. Executive Order 14052 directs federal agencies to prioritize “investing public dollars efficiently and equitably, working to avoid waste, and focusing on measurable outcomes for the American people.” This guidance specifies the uniform collection, measurement, and reporting methodologies necessary for a set of key metrics that DOE can use to communicate the outcomes and outputs of funds awarded, ensuring consistency, transparency, and accountability to support Administration and program objectives.
This Information Collection addresses a set of key cross-cutting metrics that will track across DOE programs to assess and communicate DOE's progress toward meeting key agency priorities, including creating quality jobs, supporting domestic manufacturing, increasing equity and justice, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and providing pathways to private sector uptake. The metrics will inform transparent and consistent reporting of the key metrics across DOE awards and will include project-level location data covering outcomes and outputs for specific communities, allowing DOE to better understand who is affected by DOE funded programs and how. This approach will enable DOE to report metrics at the agency, office, portfolio, and program levels and will provide data that can help evaluate the efficiency and equity of the programs, educate the design and implementation of future programs, and identify and address potential waste. DOE proposes to collect information through applications and supporting documents information necessary to determine that whether rebate applicants meet the specified statutory criteria to receive payments under the equipment rebate programs.
This Information Collection (IC) addresses a set of key cross-cutting metrics that will track across DOE programs to assess and communicate DOE’s progress toward meeting key agency priorities, including creating quality jobs, supporting domestic manufacturing, increasing equity and justice, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and providing pathways to private sector uptake. The metrics associated with the key priorities are as follows:
Community Benefits
Direct Jobs
Training and Outcomes
Labor engagement
Funding by Community
Community Engagement
Consent-Based Siting
Technical Assistance
Community Ownership
Direct Domestic Manufacturing and Recycling Capacity
Critical Materials and Rare Earth Element Production and Mining Capacity
Infrastructure Supported
Energy Saved
Net GHG Emissions
Criteria Air Pollutants
Reduction in Household Energy Costs
Follow-on-Funding
Location
Only a subset of the total metrics will apply to each individual funding recipient; for example, direct domestic manufacturing capacity will only be relevant to the small subset of funding recipients support (i.e., construct, establish, retool, re-equip, or retrofit) manufacturing capacity or advanced energy property recycling capacity. The metrics will inform transparent and consistent reporting of the key metrics across DOE awards and will include project-level location data covering outcomes and outputs for specific communities, allowing DOE to better understand who is affected by DOE funded programs and how (See M-22-12, Part II, D). This approach will enable DOE to report metrics at the agency, office, portfolio, and program levels and will provide data that can help evaluate the efficiency and equity of the programs, educate the design and implementation of future programs, and identify and address potential waste. Collection instruments are not being proposed. As stated, the subset of data to be collected will be award dependent.
DOE program offices will manage data collection from funding recipients and work with recipients to ensure necessary data is collected from sub-recipients for each metric that is relevant to their program, with the support of the Office of the Undersecretary for Infrastructure (S3), the Office of Policy, and the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity and will report those data to a designated point of contact in S3 at a specified frequency. DOE will work with funding recipients to determine the appropriate metrics to be reported. DOE will integrate financial and performance data into an internal dashboard to report the metrics. The internal dashboard has not yet been developed.
Additionally, DOE proposes to collect information through applications and supporting documents information necessary to determine whether rebate applicants meet the specified statutory criteria to receive payments under the equipment rebate programs.
DOE Clean Energy Infrastructure:
https://www.energy.gov/clean-energy-infrastructure/clean-energy-infrastructure-homepage
DOE submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202212-1910-001 Click IC List for survey instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this site.
FR notice inviting comment:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-28104
For AEA members wishing to submit comments to OMB, the AEA Committee on Economic Statistics offers "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806