[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 227 (Friday, November 27, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 62275-62277]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-28428]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
49 CFR Part 599
[Docket No. NHTSA-2009-0120; Notice 1]
RIN 2127-AK67
Requirements and Procedures for Consumer Assistance To Recycle
and Save Program
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: This proposed rule would amend the regulations implementing
the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) program, published
on July 29, 2009, in the Federal Register, under the CARS Act. The rule
change would allow disposal facilities an additional 90 days, for a
total of 270 days, to crush or shred a vehicle traded in under the CARS
program. This additional time would allow the public to benefit from
the availability of lower cost used vehicle parts from vehicles traded
in under the CARS program and would provide disposal facilities with an
opportunity to derive more revenue from those vehicles prior to
crushing or shredding.
DATES: Submit comments on or before December 17, 2009.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments electronically [identified by DOT
Docket Number NHTSA-2009-0120] by visiting the following Web site:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Alternatively, you can file comments using the following methods:
Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., West Building Ground
Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: West Building Ground Floor, Room
W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Fax: (202) 493-2251.
Instructions: For detailed instructions on submitting comments and
additional information on the rulemaking process, see the Public
Participation heading of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this
document. 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 heading below.
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 (65 FR 19477-78).
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online
instructions for accessing the dockets.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions, you may call David
Jasinski, NHTSA Office of Chief Counsel, at (202) 366-5552.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Current Rule and Proposed Change
This proposed rule would amend the regulations implementing the
Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) program, published on
July 29, 2009, in the Federal Register (74 FR 37878), under the CARS
Act (Pub. L. 111-32), and amended by final rules published on August 5,
2009 (74 FR 38974), and September 28, 2009 (74 FR 49338). The rule
change would allow disposal facilities an additional 90 days, for a
total of 270 days, to crush or shred a vehicle traded in under the CARS
program. This additional time would allow the public to benefit from
the availability of lower cost, used vehicle parts from CARS trade-in
vehicles and would provide disposal facilities with an opportunity to
derive more revenue from those vehicles prior to crushing or shredding
thereby providing additional economic benefit from the CARS program.
Section 1302(c)(2) of the CARS Act grants the agency discretion to
determine the appropriate time period in which a disposal facility must
crush a vehicle. The rule currently requires a disposal facility that
receives a vehicle traded in under the CARS program to crush or shred
the vehicle within 180 days of receipt of the vehicle. 49 CFR
599.401(a)(3). After consulting with representatives of disposal
facilities, the agency determined that 180 days was an appropriate
amount of time to allow a disposal facility to possess a car prior to
crushing or shredding. The allowed time period was determined based
upon an estimate that 250,000 vehicles would be traded in under the
CARS program and that the program's duration would be four months.
Due to the enormous popularity of the CARS program, the initial $1
billion in available funds were quickly depleted and, on August 7,
2009, Congress provided the CARS program with an additional $2 billion
(Pub. L. 111-47). On August 25, 2009, approximately one month after the
CARS program began, the agency stopped accepting new submissions
because the additional funds were also depleted. By that time, nearly
700,000 new vehicles had been sold under the CARS program.
Shortly after new CARS program transactions ceased and the majority
of the dealers' transactions were reimbursed by NHTSA, a representative
of disposal facilities requested a meeting with NHTSA officials to
discuss the possibility of extending the 180-day time period for
crushing or shredding a trade-in vehicle. Although disposal facilities
initially expected to receive 250,000 CARS trade-in vehicles spread out
over four months, disposal facilities actually received nearly 700,000
CARS trade-in vehicles. Further, the majority of the CARS trade-in
vehicles were received within less than one month.
At a September 29, 2009, meeting \1\ with disposal facility
representatives, agency officials learned that some disposal facilities
were experiencing
[[Page 62276]]
substantial difficulty processing all of the CARS trade-in vehicles
that were purchased from dealers or salvage auctions and that many
disposal facilities anticipated significant difficulty in meeting the
180-day deadline to crush and shred these vehicles. The representatives
also noted that the processing problems made it difficult for
facilities to effectively inventory and sell parts from these vehicles,
as authorized by the CARS Act. The disposal facilities suggested that,
if they were able to hold a vehicle for more than 180 days prior to
crushing or shredding, then consumers would have the benefit of cheaper
used vehicle parts. The disposal facility representatives suggested
that one year would be a suitable time to ensure that the public
received the maximum benefit from used vehicle parts while
simultaneously ensuring that the vehicles are crushed or shredded
within a reasonable time frame.
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\1\ A memorandum summarizing the meeting has been placed in the
docket. (Docket No. NHTSA-2009-0120).
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The agency must balance the concerns of the disposal facilities and
the public's interest in having access to cheaper used vehicle parts
with two considerations that weigh against allowing more time to crush
or shred trade-in vehicles. First, and most importantly, the agency is
concerned about possible fraud. The CARS Act contains an explicit
Congressional instruction to take measures to prevent fraud and the
statute's clear environmental objective is to ensure that the fuel
inefficient trade-in vehicles are never again used on the highway. The
risk of fraud related to extending the deadline for crushing or
shredding vehicles is mitigated substantially by the fact that dealers
are required to disable the vehicles' engines within seven days after
receipt of payment for the transaction and that vehicles must be
flagged by disposal facilities in the National Motor Vehicle Title
Information System as scrap vehicles within seven days of receipt.
Nevertheless, the risk of a vehicle returning to the highway is not
fully eliminated until the vehicle is crushed or shredded.
The agency is also concerned about the additional administrative
burden caused by extending the deadline for crushing or shredding
vehicles. The agency is committed to enforcing the requirements of the
CARS program, including the requirements that vehicles are not
transferred prior to crushing or shredding, vehicles' engine blocks are
not sold, and vehicles are crushed or shredded on site. The longer that
disposal facilities are allowed to keep vehicles on their lots prior to
crushing, the longer the agency must devote resources to ensuring that
disposal facilities comply with the requirements of the CARS program.
After considering the relevant interests, the agency proposes to
amend section 599.401(a)(3) to allow disposal facilities an additional
90 days, for a total of 270 days, to crush or shred a vehicle. The 90
additional days strikes an appropriate balance between the public
benefit of having cheaper used vehicle parts from the vehicles traded
in under the CARS program and the potential for fraud and the
administrative burdens on the agency.
As part of the certification forms that disposal facilities are
required to sign under section 599.400 and Appendix E, a disposal
facility must certify that a CARS program trade-in vehicle will be
crushed or shredded within 180 days after receipt of the vehicle.
Because NHTSA has already received the majority of the 700,000 Disposal
Facility Certification Forms, it would be unnecessarily burdensome on
both NHTSA and disposal facilities to require disposal facilities to
submit new forms to NHTSA. Instead, if the proposed rule is adopted,
NHTSA intends to treat the certifications on the forms already
submitted as if they required disposal facilities to crush or shred a
vehicle within 270 days of receipt. We also propose adding paragraph
(d) to section 599.401 to formalize the de facto change to the existing
certification.
Statutory Basis for This Action
This proposed rule would make amendments to regulations
implementing the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act (CARS Act)
(Pub. L. 111-32), which directs the Secretary to issue regulations
implementing the Act.
APA Requirements and Public Comment
Section 1302(d) of the CARS Act provides that ``notwithstanding''
the requirements of section 553 of title 5, United States Code, the
Secretary shall promulgate final regulations to implement the Program
not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act. The
agency considered public notice and comment impracticable and used the
statutory authority in the CARS Act to issue the CARS program
regulations and the two subsequent amendments.
In the interest of openness and public participation, the agency
has determined that a 20-day public notice and comment period is
warranted for this proposed rule. Because the transaction submission
portal was opened on July 27, 2009, the first vehicles would have been
received by disposal facilities shortly thereafter. Therefore, the
deadline for crushing or shredding some vehicles traded in under the
CARS program would be as soon as approximately February 1, 2010 under
the current regulations.
Although the agency recognizes that some vehicles traded in under
the CARS program have already been crushed or shredded voluntarily well
in advance of the 180 day deadline, basic fairness requires all
vehicles traded in under the CARS program and not yet crushed or
shredded be subject to the same deadline for crushing or shredding.
Therefore, to ensure consistency, a final rule extending the deadline
for crushing or shredding a trade in vehicle would need to be issued by
approximately February 1, 2010. A 20-day comment period allows the
agency time to solicit and consider public comment before issuing a
final rule that would come into effect before February 1, 2010,
ensuring that all vehicles traded in under the program would be subject
to the same time period for crushing or shredding.
Effective Date
The amendments would be effective immediately upon publication of
the final rule in the Federal Register. The 90-day increase from 180
days to 270 days would apply to all vehicles not yet crushed or
shredded pursuant to the CARS program.
Request for Comments
How Do I Prepare and Submit Comments?
Your comments must be written and in English. To ensure that your
comments are correctly filed in the Docket, please include the docket
number of this document in your comments.
Your comments must not be more than 15 pages long (49 CFR 553.21).
We established this limit to encourage you to write your primary
comments in a concise fashion. However, you may attach necessary
additional documents to your comments. There is no limit on the length
of the attachments.
Please submit two copies of your comments, including the
attachments, to Docket Management at the beginning of this document,
under ADDRESSES. You may also submit your comments electronically to
the docket following the steps outlined under ADDRESSES.
How Can I Be Sure That My Comments Were Received?
If you wish Docket Management to notify you upon its receipt of
your comments, enclose a self-addressed,
[[Page 62277]]
stamped postcard in the envelope containing your comments. Upon
receiving your comments, Docket Management will return the postcard by
mail.
How Do I Submit Confidential Business Information?
If you wish to submit any information under a claim of
confidentiality, you should submit the following to the NHTSA Office of
Chief Counsel (NCC-110), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC
20590: (1) A complete copy of the submission; (2) a redacted copy of
the submission with the confidential information removed; and (3)
either a second complete copy or those portions of the submission
containing the material for which confidential treatment is claimed and
any additional information that you deem important to the Chief
Counsel's consideration of your confidentiality claim. A request for
confidential treatment that complies with 49 CFR part 512 must
accompany the complete submission provided to the Chief Counsel. For
further information, submitters who plan to request confidential
treatment for any portion of their submissions are advised to review 49
CFR part 512, particularly those sections relating to document
submission requirements. Failure to adhere to the requirements of Part
512 may result in the release of confidential information to the public
docket. In addition, you should submit two copies from which you have
deleted the claimed confidential business information, to Docket
Management at the address given at the beginning of this document under
ADDRESSES.
Will the Agency Consider Late Comments?
We will consider all comments that Docket Management receives
before the close of business on the comment closing date indicated at
the beginning of this notice under DATES. In accordance with our
policies, to the extent possible, we will also consider comments that
Docket Management receives after the specified comment closing date. If
Docket Management receives a comment too late for us to consider in
developing the proposed rule, we will consider that comment as an
informal suggestion for future rulemaking action.
How Can I Read the Comments Submitted by Other People?
You may read the comments received by Docket Management at the
address and times given near the beginning of this document under
ADDRESSES.
You may also see the comments on the Internet. To read the comments
on the Internet, go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the on-
line instructions provided.
You may download the comments. The comments are imaged documents,
in either TIFF or PDF format. Please note that even after the comment
closing date, we will continue to file relevant information in the
Docket as it becomes available. Further, some people may submit late
comments. Accordingly, we recommend that you periodically search the
Docket for new material.
Regulatory Analyses and Notices
We have considered the impact of this rulemaking action under
Executive Order 12866 and the Department of Transportation's regulatory
policies and procedures. This rulemaking document was not reviewed by
the Office of Management and Budget under Executive Order 12866,
``Regulatory Planning and Review.'' This action is limited to the
proposed extension contained herein, and has been determined to be not
``significant'' under the Department of Transportation's regulatory
policies and procedures.
The agency has discussed the relevant requirements of the
Regulatory Flexibility Act, Executive Order 13132 (Federalism),
Executive Order 12988 (Civil Justice Reform), the National
Environmental Policy Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the Unfunded
Mandates Reform Act in the July 29, 2009 final rule cited above. This
rule does not change the finding in those analyses.
Regulatory Identifier Number (RIN)
The Department of Transportation assigns a regulation identifier
number (RIN) to each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of
Federal Regulations. The Regulatory Information Service Center
publishes the Unified Agenda in April and October of each year. You may
use the RIN contained in the heading at the beginning of this document
to find this action in the Unified Agenda.
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 (65 FR 19477-78).
List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 599
Fuel Economy, Motor vehicle safety.
In consideration of the foregoing, NHTSA proposes to amend 49 CFR
part 599 as set forth below.
PART 599--REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES FOR CONSUMER ASSISTANCE TO
RECYCLE AND SAVE ACT PROGRAM
1. The authority citation for Part 599 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 32901, Notes; delegation of authority at
49 CFR 1.50.
2. Section 599.401 is amended by revising paragraph (a)(3) and
adding paragraph (d) to read as follows:
Sec. 599.401 Requirements and limitations for disposal facilities
that receive trade-in vehicles under the CARS program.
(a) * * *
(3) Crush or shred the trade-in vehicle onsite, including the
engine block and the drive train (unless with respect to the drive
train, the transmission, drive shaft, and rear end are sold
separately), using its own machinery or a mobile crusher, within 270
days after receipt of the vehicle from the dealer or salvage auction;
* * * * *
(d) A completed Disposal Facility Certification Form (Appendix E to
this part) for an individual transaction, which includes a
certification by the disposal facility that the trade-in vehicle will
be crushed or shredded within 180 days of receipt by the disposal
facility is deemed to be amended to include an extension of time such
that the trade-in vehicle will be crushed or shredded within 270 days
of receipt by the disposal facility.
Issued on: November 23, 2009.
Ronald L. Medford,
Acting Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. E9-28428 Filed 11-25-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P