Gas Sector Flags ‘Serious’ Modeling Issues In DOE’s Furnace Efficiency Rule

Natural gas industry groups are pressing the Energy Department (DOE) to provide additional details about the models it used to justify a plan to significantly strengthen residential furnace energy efficiency standards, a measure that would effectively phase out less-efficient “non-condensing” models and likely spur greater uptake of electric options. “The more we look into the model, the more issues we find,” argued Barton Day, representing gas supplier Spire, at an Aug. 3 DOE webinar on the rulemaking. The new standards...