DOE/FERC Agenda

Industry Split Over DOE’s Major Water Heater Efficiency Standards Plan

Industry is split about an Energy Department (DOE) efficiency rule for consumer water heaters that would yield massive energy savings and associated greenhouse gas cuts -- by effectively requiring a switch from electric water heaters to heat pumps and also improving the efficiency from gas-fired models. As evidenced by formal comments on the proposal filed ahead of a Sept. 26 deadline, opposition is being led by the natural gas sector and a company that makes “tankless” non-condensing water heaters. But...

Industry, Advocates Reach Deal On Key DOE Appliance Efficiency Rules

Home appliance manufacturers and efficiency advocates have reached an agreement to support several proposed Energy Department (DOE) efficiency standards for a range of consumer appliances, including hotly contested measures for gas stoves, in a deal that seeks to give the manufacturers additional time to comply with any new standards. The Sept. 13 agreement -- between appliance manufacturers trade group the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM); environment and efficiency groups such as the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)...

Industry Continues To Blast DOE Gas Stove Rule Despite Eased Limits

Natural gas and appliance groups are continuing to slam the Energy Department’s (DOE) proposed efficiency rule for gas stoves, arguing officials are still failing to justify the rule even after the department issued new data that likely lays the groundwork for softening some requirements. “DOE’s proposed standards for cooking products are too stringent,” writes the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) in a Sept. 1 letter responding to DOE’s Aug. 2 notice of data availability (NODA) that floated new efficiency...

NRDC Floats Permitting Options, With Heavy Focus On Executive Action

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is outlining a series of steps it would like the Biden administration to take using existing authority to speed power transmission and related clean energy projects, while also renewing a push for certain transmission-related provisions in a potential legislative permitting package. The group’s advocacy, outlined in a Sept. 6 report , also touches on various other topics, including greater attention to community input and state efforts to reduce siting obstacles for renewable energy projects...

D.C. Circuit Presses FERC On Deciding Gas Projects’ GHG ‘Significance’

Appellate judges are pressing federal energy regulators about why they persistently refuse to determine the “significance” of a natural gas project’s greenhouse gas emissions during an environmental review, a long-running debate with potential consequences for required mitigation and evaluation of project alternatives. The latest venue for this debate was Sept. 5 oral arguments hosted by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in consolidated litigation known as Alabama Municipal Distributors Group, et...

DOE Takes Early Steps To Reuse Nuclear Waste Sites For Clean Energy

The Energy Department (DOE) is taking initial steps to repurpose portions of Cold War-era nuclear waste sites for zero-carbon power projects, offering a novel connection between the Biden administration’s broader push to address climate change and the federal government’s long-running effort to remediate radioactive waste sites. DOE writes in an Aug. 30 request for information (RFI) that it seeks to “identify potentially capable parties having an interest in leasing land from the federal government to develop utility-scale carbon pollution-free electricity...

Rejecting Comments, DOE Affirms First-Time Air Cleaner Efficiency Rules

The Department of Energy (DOE) is affirming that manufacturers must begin complying with its direct final rule setting energy conservation standards for air cleaners at the end of the year, after officials determined that none of the public comments they received justify dropping the expedited rule and proceeding with a traditional rulemaking. “DOE has determined that the comments received in response to the direct final rule do not provide a reasonable basis for withdrawing the direct final rule,” DOE writes...

Environmentalists Slam Biden Programs Spurring Low-Carbon Hydrogen

Some environmental groups are pressing the Biden administration to scrap its low-carbon hydrogen “hub” program due to arguments that the technology recklessly locks in future fossil fuel use and harms local communities, echoing a long-running clash between such groups and the administration over carbon capture and storage (CCS). As with the CCS debate, the groups’ push to end the federal government’s support for low-carbon hydrogen development offers a sharp contrast with the Biden administration’s climate agenda that supports both technologies...

FERC’s Danly Urges EPA To Pause Power Plant Rule Until Reliability Review

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member James Danly (R) is pressing EPA to extend the comment period for its proposed power plant greenhouse gas standards until FERC holds a conference to discuss potential reliability effects of the plan in November. Such a move would effectively delay the high-profile rulemaking by several months, even as Biden administration officials have said they hope to finalize the rule by April in a likely attempt to increase the rule’s durability ahead of next year’s...

DOE Announces Infrastructure Law Funds For First CO2 Removal Hubs

The Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing grants of up to $1.2 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law to help deploy two commercial-scale projects demonstrating the novel direct air capture (DAC) technology, with officials arguing the projects could help develop critical options to avoid catastrophic climate change damages. In addition to the announcement of the DAC “hubs” in Texas and Louisiana, DOE officials are also unveiling awards for over a dozen earlier-stage studies for over a dozen potential future DAC...

Seeking To Address EJ Concerns, DOE Floats ‘Responsible’ CCS Goals

The Energy Department (DOE) is floating a series of voluntary principles that carbon capture and storage (CCS) developers could meet to be recognized as “responsible” operators, with officials seeking to address a litany of concerns from environmental justice (EJ) and other groups that have long opposed carbon management projects. DOE is seeking input within 30 days on the draft principles as part of a request for information scheduled to be published in the Aug. 11 Federal Register . The principles...

FERC To Weigh Potential Reliability Effects Of EPA Power Plants Rule

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is announcing that it will discuss the potential reliability implications of EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rules for power plants, as part of its annual technical conference on reliability that is scheduled for this November. The move follows frequent arguments by Capitol Hill critics that the rule will hamper grid reliability by forcing fossil fuel-fired plants to close, even as the FERC forum could also provide a venue for federal officials to offer assurances tempering...

DOE Rejects Years-Old Petition Seeking Rule On LNG Export Approvals

The Energy Department (DOE) is denying environmental groups’ long-pending petition to develop a rulemaking outlining how officials assess whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects are in the “public interest,” with the groups blasting the decision as downplaying the climate and equity effects of such projects. Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and others had sued DOE earlier this year over its “unreasonable delay” in responding to their 2013 petition seeking such a rule, though the two sides agreed to...

New DOE Efficiency Plans Renew Industry Fears Over Gas-Appliance Limits

The Energy Department (DOE) is proposing tougher energy efficiency standards for consumer boilers, as well as finalizing stronger limits for commercial water heaters -- re-igniting industry concerns about standards that would phase out older, less-efficient “non-condensing” gas-fired appliances in favor of “condensing” models. In response to the commercial water heater rule, the American Public Gas Association (APGA) writes it is “is concerned with the alarming precedent that this standard will set for other DOE appliance efficiency rulemakings, including the residential...

After Fierce Pushback, DOE Floats Eased Gas Stove Efficiency Standards

The Department of Energy (DOE) floated revised stove efficiency standards that would raise the allowable energy use levels for several types of gas cooktops, in an apparent concession to industry groups and Hill critics that had launched a barrage of attacks over proposed standards issued earlier this year. The changes, detailed in a notice of data availability (NODA) scheduled for Federal Register publication Aug. 2, would ensure that current gas stove models with up to six high input rate...

DOE Readies $8.5 Billion For State Distribution Of Home Efficiency Rebates

The Energy Department (DOE) has opened applications for states and territories to implement two rebate programs totaling $8.5 billion for home energy efficiency upgrades, part of the Biden administration’s broader push to electrify the economy and curb greenhouse gas emission but which is sparking opposition from the gas industry and GOP officials. “Energy savings and electrification upgrades like insulating your home, installing a heat pump, or upgrading to electric Energy Star appliances, lower monthly utility costs and lead to healthier...

FERC Backs Interconnection Rule Seen Aiding Clean Power Projects

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved with some modifications a rule that reforms the queue process for power projects seeking to connect to the transmission grid, a move garnering preliminary praise from clean energy backers even as they -- and the commission itself -- suggest more fixes are needed. “This rule ensures that our country’s vast generation resources are able to interconnect to the transmission system in a reliable, efficient, transparent and timely manner,” FERC Chair Willie Phillips...

Seeking Big Energy Savings, DOE Floats Water Heater Efficiency Limits

In an efficiency rulemaking that officials project would spur massive energy savings and related carbon emissions reductions, the Energy Department (DOE) is proposing tougher standards for consumer water heaters that would push the sector toward heat pump technologies. “These standards will save a whopping 27 quads of energy, that’s more than a quarter of the energy consumed by the U.S. each year. Updating efficiency standards for water heaters will also save consumers an astounding $11.4 billion on their annual utility...

DOE Floats $1 Billion For Demand-Side Hydrogen Hub Support

The Department of Energy (DOE) intends to spend $1 billion in “demand-side support” designed to incentivize private-sector investment in clean hydrogen, a move the Biden administration says demonstrates it broader commitment to providing such demand-side support along with the $8 billion hydrogen hub program which aims to provide supply-side incentives for clean energy technologies. “Tools that mitigate market risk for clean energy technologies during scale-up could meaningfully accelerate commercialization of these technologies, especially in clean hydrogen,” says a July 5...

GOP Senators Seek FERC Conferences on EPA’s Power Plant GHG Plan

Top Republicans on the Senate energy and environment committees are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to hold “a series of technical conferences” examining the impact of EPA’s proposed power plant emissions rules on reliability of the power grid. In a June 30 letter to four FERC commissioners, Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the ranking Republicans on the two committees, cite concerns about EPA’s pending proposal as well as recent energy committee hearings that “demonstrated...

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