DOE/FERC Agenda

Granholm Details Economic Case For Biden’s Clean Energy Strategy

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is detailing the economic case for the Biden administration’s strategy to boost deployment of clean energy and other climate-friendly infrastructure, offering an election season message for voters who might be more concerned about manufacturing sector jobs than efforts to address climate change. “The U.S. is back, baby! We are the envy of the world!” Granholm said during a Feb. 21 address at the National Press Club that focused heavily on domestic manufacturing jobs and economic competitiveness...

DOE Finalizes Closely Watched Efficiency Standards For Gas, Electric Stoves

The Energy Department (DOE) is finalizing first-time energy efficiency standards for electric and gas cooktops, adopting a compromise proposal from environmentalists and appliance manufacturers while also downplaying concerns expressed by gas utilities and Republican lawmakers. Environmental groups are applauding the Jan. 29 rule , though the final standards will impose less stringent requirements than what DOE first proposed in February 2023, especially for gas stoves -- perhaps to quell vocal opposition to the rule from some groups. The regulation would...

Senate, House Press Competing Views On FERC’s Clean Power Response

Senate Democrats and House Republicans are raising dueling concerns with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) about the reliability implications of clean energy, with Democrats pressing the agency to support a shift to clean energy while protecting reliability as GOP lawmakers eye policies to support fossil fuel generators. The stances, outlined in recent letters to FERC following its annual reliability technical conference in November, highlight some overlap among lawmakers from both parties about the notion that current FERC policies are...

DOE Launches Broad Review Of Climate, Other Effects Of LNG Exports

Top Energy Department (DOE) and White House officials are formally launching a broad review of how officials study the climate change and other effects of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export proposals as part of their threshold “public interest” determinations, a move that will pause pending export applications for months amid industry fears of chilled investment in the sector. “As our exports increase, we must review export applications using the most comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the economic, environmental and national security...

Biden Officials Reportedly Pause High-Profile LNG Export Project Decision

The Biden administration reportedly will delay deciding whether to approve a major proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal to assess the project’s effects on climate change, a move that some observers say could also signal delays for other LNG proposals as environmentalists press Biden officials to limit fossil fuel production. The New York Times reports Jan. 24 that the Energy Department (DOE) is “pausing” any decision on the Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) project. Instead, the Times says,...

Amid Advocates’ Pressure, DOE Weighs Climate Criteria For LNG Exports

Environmentalists are welcoming reports that the Energy Department (DOE) is reassessing its policy for how to weigh climate change factors when reviewing if a plan to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) is in the “public interest,” a process advocates have long criticized because officials have never rejected such a proposal on those grounds. The move comes amid a heightened debate about whether the federal government should more aggressively limit domestic fossil fuel production after countries during last month’s international climate...

DOE Launches Multi-Phase Process To Designate Transmission ‘Corridors’

The Department of Energy (DOE) is detailing the policy it will use to designate “national interest electric transmission corridors” (NIETCs) that would receive federal permitting and financing benefits, as Biden officials continue administrative efforts to spur new transmission in the absence new legislation on the issue. A final DOE guidance document being published Jan. 8 in the Federal Register , after public release last month, outlines a four-step process aimed at defining such corridors. If successful, the process could yield...

DOE Finalizes Refrigerator Efficiency Standard, Floats Industrial Fans Rule

The Energy Department (DOE) is advancing a pair of energy efficiency standards that officials say could yield significant energy savings and associated carbon emissions reductions, finalizing consensus standards for refrigerators and freezers and proposing first-time requirements for industrial fans and blowers. “Together, these updated standards are also expected to reduce nearly 420 million metric tons of dangerous carbon dioxide emissions cumulatively over 30 years, which is equivalent to the combined annual emissions of nearly 53 million homes,” DOE touts in...

Natural Gas Groups Launch Lawsuit Over DOE Furnace Efficiency Rule

Natural gas trade associations and an appliance manufacturer are launching suit over the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efficiency standards for consumer furnaces, the second of two cases testing industry’s argument that DOE cannot legally phase out less-efficient “non-condensing” appliances. DOE’s final furnace rule was published in the Federal Register Dec. 18, and the gas groups filed their lawsuit over the measure the same day in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The petition for...

Biden Officials At COP28 Flag Optimism On Nuclear Fusion’s Potential

DUBAI -- Biden administration officials during the ongoing international climate talks here are expressing optimism about the commercial potential of nuclear fusion energy, a technology that for decades has been touted as a promising clean energy option but has also faced numerous technical hurdles. During Dec. 6 remarks at the climate talks, White House climate envoy John Kerry flagged the participation of former Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in a new plan from nearly three dozen countries to advance fusion...

DOE Launches Heat Pump Manufacturing Awards With Defense Authority

The Energy Department (DOE) is announcing preliminary awards to boost domestic production of electric heat pumps, an energy-efficient option for space heating and cooling, under President Joe Biden’s directive from last summer using emergency power under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to spur clean energy technology. DOE officials on Nov. 17 announced they were beginning award negotiations for a total of $169 million for nine projects to speed domestic heat pump manufacturing. The awards are funded by the Inflation Reduction...

DOE Floats NEPA Exclusions For Clean Energy Storage, Transmission

The Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to add and revise categorical exclusions (CEs) for some clean energy projects to avoid detailed National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, offering streamlined procedures for certain clean energy storage systems, solar projects and transmission lines. DOE explains in a Nov. 16 Federal Register notice that it plans to “add a categorical exclusion for certain energy storage systems and revise categorical exclusions for upgrading and rebuilding transmission lines and for solar photovoltaic [PV]...

D.C. Circuit Weighs EPA, FERC Split Over Need To Study Upstream GHGs

A key appellate court is weighing a split between EPA and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over whether and how to consider upstream greenhouse gas emissions in reviews of natural gas projects, in a case where environmental groups are pressing the court to vacate FERC’s approval of a gas pipeline in New York. During Nov. 7 oral arguments in the case, Food & Water Watch (FWW) v. FERC , Judge Robert Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

Environmentalists Rebut Critics’ Reliability Claims On EPA Power Plant Rule

As federal energy regulators prepare to review the reliability effects of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas standards, environmentalists are seeking to rebut industry claims that that the plan could endanger grid reliability, with advocates arguing that regional grid operators and utilities should enhance their planning to integrate cleaner energy resources. A Nov. 7 analysis from the clean energy group Energy Innovation (EI) argues that maintaining reliability under EPA’s proposed standards is technically possible, and that the primary threat to reliability...

GOP Senators Urge FERC To Dial Up Review Of EPA Power Plant GHG Rule

Two Senate Republicans are urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to enhance its scrutiny of the potential reliability effects of EPA’s power plant greenhouse gas proposal, ahead of the commission’s technical conference next week that will include discussion of the rule. “[T]o develop an adequate record of the potential impacts of the EPA’s proposed rule, we believe you must do more than devote only a portion of your annual [reliability technical conference scheduled for Nov. 9] to this subject,”...

House Republicans Ramp Up Attacks On Tougher DOE Efficiency Limits

Republican lawmakers are expanding their attacks on efficiency standards for housing and appliances, introducing broad legislation that would create multiple hurdles to setting tougher requirements while also proposing to block rules for specific types of equipment. The new legislative push offers a signal that the GOP is moving beyond a focus on opposing rules that largely target gas-fired appliances, though lawmakers are continuing to criticize such policies as well. The proposed legislation is needed to keep the Energy Department (DOE)...

DOE Transmission ‘Needs’ Report Could Inform Project Siting, Funding

The Energy Department’s (DOE) final report about power transmission “needs” is outlining a significant amount of capacity that must be added to integrate expected clean energy additions and maintain reliability, with the findings expected to inform future steps by the agency that could unlock eased permitting and financing for projects. DOE finds a “pressing need for additional electric transmission infrastructure in nearly all regions of the country to improve reliability and resilience, address high energy costs, and reduce congestion and...

DOE Floats Draft Roadmap For Connecting Clean Energy Projects To Grid

The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking input on a draft roadmap for improving the grid interconnection process needed to accelerate clean power projects, an effort DOE says partially overlaps with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules (FERC) but also includes “additional ideas” and covers projects not regulated by FERC. The draft roadmap, released Oct. 25, stems from a stakeholder process known as the Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange, which was created last year with funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law. The plan...

DOE Plans Seven Hydrogen ‘Hubs’ With Mix Of CCS, Renewable Sources

The Energy Department (DOE) is unveiling plans to award $7 billion to seven regional low-carbon hydrogen infrastructure “hubs,” with Biden administration officials stating that about two-thirds of the funding would go toward electrolysis-based hydrogen and much of the rest toward projects based on carbon capture and storage (CCS). While industry is praising the move as a boon to the nascent low-carbon hydrogen sector, environmentalists are offering a more tepid reaction given that many groups oppose CCS-based production methods known as...

DOE Finalizes Stronger Furnace Efficiency Rule Despite Industry Pushback

The Energy Department (DOE) is finalizing a home furnace efficiency standard that advocacy groups are applauding for its energy and cost savings -- even though natural gas and other industry groups have argued officials failed to economically justify a standard that effectively phases out an older style of gas furnaces. The Sept. 29 final rule , covering non-weatherized gas furnaces and mobile home gas furnaces, imposes a 95 percent annual fuel utilization efficiency standard, up from 80 percent. DOE estimates...

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