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Statement of Need: This is a new grant program authorized by the Farm Bill. The purpose of Section 9009, Rural Energy Self-Sufficiency Initiative, is to provide financial assistance to enable eligible rural communities to substantially increase the energy self-sufficiency.

Summary of the Legal Basis: The Rural Energy Self-Sufficiency Initiative was authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, which made available $5 million annually in discretionary funding through 2012, but no funds have been made available to date.

Alternatives: An alternative would be to publish a proposed Rule without an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The Farm Bill currently does not clearly define eligible rural communities or what eligible entities can apply on behalf of an eligible community. There are no maximum or minimum grant amounts set in this program. Additionally, the Farm Bill does not include any scoring requirements to determine who would receive a grant under the program. There are other program components not defined in the statute. Because of the limited discretionary funding for this program, scoring requirements would need to be determined based on extremely focused parameters. A determination would need to be made as to the size of the average project, particularly when you are considering a community submitting an application to develop and install an integrated renewable energy system. The program will need to clearly define an eligible rural community and what type of applicants would be eligible.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits: It is anticipated that there will be costs directly attributable to the contractor, which is assisting with drafting the notice. Other costs would be internal costs associated with the promulgation of the rule. The Agency is confident that the regulations will contain sufficient safeguards to mitigate any risk associated with a proposed rule and would be a benefit to the agency as well as potential applicants considering applying for assistance under this program. Benefits accruing to the publishing of an advance notice would enable the Agency to use the public comments to develop a more focused proposed rule.

Risks: The proposed action does not mitigate risk to the public health or safety or to the environment.