DOE/FERC Agenda

Trump’s Early Directives Highlight Preference For Traditional Energy Forms

President Donald Trump’s early directives to agencies are underscoring a preference for fossil fuels and other traditional energy types -- prompting the clean energy sector to argue the new administration is advancing a “some of the above” energy agenda at odds with long-standing calls against the government picking favored energy sources. Among the series of executive orders (EO) Trump issued Jan. 20 is a formal finding of a “national energy emergency,” which directs agencies to explore sweeping emergency actions to...

Trump DOE Pick Pledges Support For Oil & Gas, Hedges On IRA Programs

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Energy (DOE), Chris Wright, during his Senate nomination hearing pledged support for expanding production of natural gas and other resources, while also touting “innovation” over regulatory approaches to address climate change. However, Wright also defended his prior remarks suggesting that the media was hyping the role of climate change in exacerbating wildfires, an exchange that is drawing sharp criticism from environmentalists. His remarks came during a Jan. 15 hearing of the...

D.C. Circuit Says FERC Need Not Weigh Gas Alternatives In Pipeline Reviews

A three-judge D.C. Circuit panel is ruling against environmentalists challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of a natural gas pipeline intended to serve new power plants in Indiana, arguing that the agency was correct in not weighing alternatives to gas in an environmental review of the project. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) “does not require FERC to consider non-gas alternatives that are outside of FERC’s jurisdiction and would fail to serve the purpose of the Project,” says...

FERC Launches Rules To Codify Clean Power Grid Reliability Standards

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is proposing the first in a planned series of rules to codify reliability standards for “inverter-based resources” (IBRs) -- including solar, wind, and energy storage -- aiding integration of growing clean energy generation to the power grid. The rule announced at FERC’s Dec. 19 monthly meeting is part of the agency’s ongoing implementation of its 2023 directive that instructed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop such standards over three years. The...

DOE Issues Tankless Water Heater Efficiency Rule, Amid Industry Complaint

The Energy Department (DOE) is finalizing efficiency standards for tankless, gas-fired water heaters, again choosing standards that effectively bar appliances with less-efficient “non-condensing” technology that the gas industry and one water heater maker are urging the incoming Trump administration to reverse. The department finalized the standards Dec. 16 , requiring the “instantaneous” models to slash energy use by around 13 percent compared to the least efficient models on the market today. The move comes after officials finalized standards for most...

Industry Downplays DOE’s LNG Analysis With Eye To Trump’s Next Steps

Industry attorneys and other analysts are suggesting ways that the incoming Trump administration might respond to the Energy Department’s (DOE) long-awaited assessment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports’ effect on domestic prices, greenhouse gases and other issues, including steps to either downplay or withdraw the study. Plus, a top industry group is also promoting a Dec. 17 S&P Global study that offers a “stark contrast” to DOE’s findings and a possible justification for the incoming Trump DOE to approve additional...

Bolstering Future Challenges, DOE Finds LNG Exports Hike GHGs, Costs

A long-awaited Energy Department (DOE) study has found that increasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports would increase greenhouse emissions and consumer costs, with the analysis potentially offering justification for challenges against future Trump administration LNG project approvals. “[T]he climate impact of ever greater exports of LNG merits a close and rigorous focus, especially in a world that needs to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm writes in an undated letter released alongside the Dec. 17 study ...

Biden DOE Advances Three Transmission ‘Corridors’ For Eased Approvals

The Biden administration is advancing three areas where additional transmission would be in the “national interest” and thus eligible for eased federal permitting and financing, though it remains uncertain how the incoming Trump administration will respond to the effort. On Dec. 16, the Energy Department (DOE) moved three potential National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) to a third phase of its four-phase process for such designations. It had earlier floated 10 possible corridors. According to a notice in the Dec...

DOE Official Offers Details About Upcoming GHG Study For LNG Exports

A top Energy Department (DOE) official is providing new details about the contents and timing of a major update to the analysis the department uses to determine if liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are in the “public interest,” while also urging incoming Trump officials not to immediately reject the analysis. The Biden administration is poised to release a study by the middle of this month for a 60-day public comment period, DOE fossil energy chief Brad Crabtree said during Dec...

FERC Scraps Prior Precedent Regarding Gas Projects’ GHG ‘Significance’

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is scrapping a years-old precedent that environmentalists have been attempting to use to force the agency to determine if greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas infrastructure projects are “significant,” underscoring the agency’s reluctance to make such findings. The decision comes in the context of an order pausing FERC’s approval for several months of the major Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, as officials conduct supplemental National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)...

DOE Opens Funding Opportunity For AI Use To Speed Grid Connections

The Department of Energy (DOE) is making available $30 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law for using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up permitting of new generation interconnections to the power grid, highlighting AI’s potential to help integrate greater levels of clean energy even as warnings grow about its emissions impacts. The deadline for applications for the funding is Jan. 10 -- just over a week before the formal end of the Biden administration -- with that timeline suggesting that...

Advocates Eye Trump ‘Delays,’ Urging Biden DOE To Finish Efficiency Rules

Energy efficiency advocates are pressing the Biden administration to quickly finalize numerous appliance efficiency standards in its remaining weeks in office, warning that the incoming Trump administration may delay issuing new standards even as they argue numerous factors could undercut any effort to cause long-term damage to the program. The Energy Department (DOE) during the Biden era has issued dozens of efficiency regulations ratcheting down energy use for appliances such as water heaters, air conditioners and heat pumps, and dishwashers...

Trump’s DOE Pick Highlights Oil Influence In Energy, Environment Agenda

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Chris Wright, the head of oilfield services firm Liberty Energy, to lead the Energy Department (DOE) next year is underscoring what is likely to be the heavy influence of oil and gas interests in shaping the incoming Trump administration’s energy and environment agenda. Wright’s nomination, which Trump announced Nov. 16 on social media , is the last of three major energy and environment Cabinet picks, alongside former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) to head EPA and...

FERC Grapples With Connecting Power-Hungry Data Centers To Grid

Federal energy regulators are beginning to grapple with how to deliver electricity to power-hungry data centers that are being deployed to serve artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced computing applications, as officials struggle to balance the cost, reliability and emissions implications of the expected wave of projects. Among the options being explored are proposals to co-locate such facilities with large generators such as nuclear plants, as the technology sector is under pressure to ensure that AI expansion does not cause...

DOE Strategy Says Lack Of Policy Support Hampering Carbon Management

The Energy Department (DOE) in a new near-term strategy document is blaming the limited deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and other carbon management projects on insufficient policy support, even as officials are projecting “dozens” of operating projects in the coming decades to meet climate goals. “[T]he pace of development and deployment for carbon management technologies as a climate solution has lagged significantly behind other emission reduction technologies like renewable energy and electric vehicles, primarily due to a lack...

FERC’s Rosner Warns Of Long Process To Implement Transmission Rule

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member David Rosner (D) is warning clean energy advocates to expect a years-long process for states and utilities to implement the agency’s new transmission planning rule, even as he and other power sector experts are urging states to participate in proceedings that could speed future projects. The appraisal comes as observers are also arguing that states should start engaging now about potential agreements for allocating costs of the power line projects, even though litigation over...

Amid Hill Momentum, DOE Pilot To Measure Industrial Product GHG Intensity

The Biden administration is launching a pilot program to measure the greenhouse gas intensity of certain industrial products, a move that one environmental group says could reflect growing Capitol Hill momentum to enact legislation on similar data collection efforts that could in turn form the basis of a carbon border fee program. Broad support for that legislation, known as the PROVE IT Act, has “strong signal” to the White House and the Energy Department (DOE) that both Republicans and Democrats...

DOE Touts New Transmission Funds, Inter-Regional Grid Planning Study

The Energy Department (DOE) is touting $1.5 billion in preliminary purchasing deals for four transmission projects that will help integrate greater levels of clean electricity, while officials have also finalized a transmission planning study that highlights paths to inter-regional projects needed to reduce future energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The announced investments represent the second wave of awards under the bipartisan infrastructure law’s Transmission Facilitation Program (TFP), Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told reporters during a preview of the...

DOE Announces $3 Billion In Support Of Vehicle Battery, Mineral Projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing a second round of pending awards under an infrastructure law program supporting investments in the domestic supply chain for batteries and related materials for electric vehicles and energy storage, touting over $3 billion in awards for 25 projects in 14 states. The Sept. 20 announcement comes almost two years after DOE announced the first round of preliminary awards to 20 companies, under a $7 billion infrastructure law program for critical minerals. DOE says...

Developer Seeks En Banc Review Of FERC Gas Pipeline Project Vacatur

A gas pipeline developer is pressing the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to rehear a three-judge panel decision vacating a federal approval of a pipeline project in New Jersey, arguing the decision wrongly held officials must assess if the project’s greenhouse gases are “significant” as part of an environmental review. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) “requires only a ‘discussion’ of the significance of GHG emissions,” argues a Sept. 13 petition for rehearing en banc...

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