DOE/FERC Agenda

Environmentalists Sue DOE, Seeking Rule On LNG Export Approval Process

Environmentalists are pressing a court to require the Department of Energy (DOE) to respond to their decade-old petition for a rulemaking on how officials analyze whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are in the “public interest,” blasting the agency for not meaningfully considering climate harms when approving such exports. “If the Biden Administration is serious about upholding its environmental justice promises or climate commitments then impacts on frontline communities, the climate, and consumers must be factored into any public interest...

DOE Launches $6 Billion For Industrial Sector Decarbonization Projects

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is touting the largest-ever program to deploy various low-carbon projects throughout the industrial sector, which accounts for about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions but has faced relatively few options to cut emissions to date compared to the electricity sector. “It’s an opportunity really to accelerate transformational projects for the industrial sector, taking concepts that might have required decades -- plural decades -- to prove and scale, and shrinking that timeline down to this decade,”...

Draft DOE Study Highlights Crucial Transmission Role For Clean Power

A new Energy Department (DOE) study is underscoring the crucial role that new electric transmission projects will play in enabling a significant growth in low-carbon energy, likely confirming worries from experts that not building such power lines would undercut the benefits of last summer’s climate law. “In future scenarios with moderate load but high clean energy assumptions -- in line with the future power sector enabled by all currently enacted laws, including the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of...

Mobile Home Manufacturers File Suit Over DOE Tougher Efficiency Rule

Mobile home manufacturers are launching suit over the Energy Department’s (DOE) energy conservation standards for the products and are asking a district court to issue an injunction blocking implementation of the rule ahead of a looming May compliance date. The suit comes despite efficiency advocates’ prior complaints that DOE’s rule imposes weaker standards for less-expensive homes, with these groups warning that will lead to improperly high energy waste and associated carbon emissions. Nevertheless, the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) argues in...

DOE Floats Tougher Efficiency Rules For Washing Machines, Refrigerators

The Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to strengthen energy efficiency standards for home washing machines and refrigerators, a move that would update requirements for the first time in a decade for appliances that are major energy users in most homes. Efficiency advocates are applauding the Feb. 10 proposed standards ahead of the formal comment period, touting the proposal’s efficiency and cost savings. The two rules -- one focused on residential clothes washers and another addressing refrigerators and freezers --...

Renewables Sector Touts Big Savings From Transmission Amid Officials’ Push

New research from a renewable energy industry group is finding major economic benefits during winter storms from adding new interstate transmission lines, findings that are likely to boost federal energy regulators’ pending rules to ease transmission deployment as well as potential legislation on the issue. “Transmission is the number one solution to reliability, cost and security of our system -- that is the reality today,” argued Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) member Allison Clements (D) at a Feb. 8 session...

Shaheen reintroduces efficiency legislation for air cleaners

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is reintroducing legislation that would establish first-ever energy efficiency standards for air cleaners, which have become increasingly popular amid the Covid-19 pandemic and wildfires, a step that boosts an industry-environmentalist coalition’s push for the Energy Department (DOE) to adopt consensus standards. “As consumer air cleaners become more common across households and public spaces, uniform standards for energy efficiency will help consumers save money and ensure quality, effective products,” Shaheen said in a Feb. 2 press release...

Environmentalists Urge DOE To Rescind ‘Unlawful’ NEPA Exclusion For LNG

Environmentalists are urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to rescind a Trump-era categorical exclusion (CE) exempting liquified natural gas (LNG) projects from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review, saying the exclusion violates the DOE’s Natural Gas Act (NGA) authority and that the projects undermine the nation’s climate goals. They also charge that LNG projects risk locking in long-term fossil fuel usage abroad, since the terminals are used almost exclusively to export natural gas. The groups make these arguments in comments...

Top DOE Official Defends Gas Stove Efficiency Proposal Amid Fears Of ‘Ban’

A just-issued Energy Department (DOE) proposal to set efficiency standards for cooking stoves is reigniting debate about what critics say is the Biden administration’s push to “ban” gas stoves, though a top official says the plan wouldn’t amount to such a ban and actually wouldn’t affect many gas stoves, which are expected to comply with the plan using existing technologies. “Every major manufacturer already has models, gas stove models, that meet or exceed the level that we’re proposing for 2027,”...

DOE Assures Lawmakers Battery Funding Will Not Boost Chinese Firms

The Department of Energy (DOE) is assuring lawmakers it is continuing to review potential Chinese ties to battery makers seeking federal support under new clean manufacturing incentives, underscoring the administrative and political challenges the Biden administration faces when implementing climate programs under both the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The DOE assurances, provided at a Feb. 2 Senate energy panel hearing on 2021 infrastructure law implementation, also highlight the ongoing clash over clean energy policies, which the...

Despite DOE’s Embrace, Advocates Press To Curtail CCS-Based Hydrogen

Environmentalists are renewing their push for the Energy Department (DOE) to restrict support for “blue” hydrogen production that relies on carbon capture and storage (CCS), even as officials are following statutory direction to include the technology in their $8 billion program to advance hydrogen infrastructure “hubs.” In addition, these advocates are supporting only a limited use of “green” hydrogen made from electrolysis systems powered by zero-carbon electricity, arguing federal support is better geared toward more efficient strategies such as electric...

D.C. Circuit Judges Seem Skeptical Of Industry Claim About DOE Boiler Rule

A panel of appellate judges during Jan. 20 oral arguments appeared skeptical of natural gas industry claims that the Department of Energy (DOE) failed to economically justify its efficiency standards for commercial boilers, signaling a possible win for the government that could bolster officials’ efficiency program more broadly. During the hearing, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard lawyers’ arguments in American Public Gas Association v. DOE. Even as the...

Amid Doubts, FERC Chief Flags Gas Climate Review Policy As ‘Priority’

Despite skepticism that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) could finalize a new policy for assessing and mitigating greenhouse gases from natural gas projects anytime soon, acting Chairman Willie Phillips (D) says he will keep pushing the issue and that it remains a “priority,” though he acknowledges it will likely “take time.” Developing more-rigorous GHG analysis requirements for gas projects had been a keystone issue for former Chairman Richard Glick (D), who left the agency late last year after Senate...

CEQ Issues ‘Interim’ NEPA Climate Guide Without GHG Significance Level

The White House has released “interim” guidance for how agencies should assess climate change effects in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, requiring reviews of projects’ direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and the use the social cost of carbon (SCC) while declining to set a GHG “significance” threshold to determine the rigor of reviews. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released the guidance Jan. 6 ahead of publication in the Jan. 9 Federal Register , when it takes immediate...

Biden DOE Plans To Advance Dozens Of Efficiency Standards This Year

The Department of Energy (DOE) is promising to advance dozens of energy conservation standards this year, winning applause from efficiency groups even as the policies are expected to intensify pushback from natural gas groups. In its latest Unified Agenda , published Jan. 4, DOE says it intends to complete 12 conservation standards for appliances and propose another 30 in 2023, along with a slew of test procedures and process changes that would enable additional conservation rules. This confirms a White...

After Glick’s Departure, Biden Taps Phillips As Acting FERC Chairman

President Joe Biden has picked Willie Phillips (D) to serve as acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), tasking him to lead the panel that plays a key role in regulating the electricity and gas sectors but which now has an even partisan split following the departure of former Chairman Richard Glick. Glick left FERC at the end of the prior Congress because the Senate failed to confirm him to another five-year term. The agency announced Phillips’ selection...

Environmentalists Fault EOR Shift In DOE Carbon Removal Funds Guide

Environmentalists are faulting what they say is a policy reversal in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) recent funding announcement for direct air capture (DAC) projects, arguing the stance makes the technology “more contentious than it otherwise may be” because grants could go to projects tied to enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The concern comes in the wake of a Dec. 13 funding opportunity that sets up the process for awarding an initial $1.236 billion toward regional DAC infrastructure “hubs” aimed at...

Amid Incandescent Phaseout, DOE To Further Tighten Lightbulb Rules

The Energy Department (DOE) is proposing to further tighten energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, a step that would require additional improvements to LED bulbs that are expected to gain market share as officials implement prior rules to effectively phase out the sale of most incandescent bulbs. Because of the vast number of lightbulbs used throughout the country, DOE projects that its Dec. 19 proposed rule would avoid almost 131 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 30 years, while...

FERC Floats Third Transmission Proposal As Glick Prepares To Depart

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is floating its third proposal this year to ease deployment of transmission projects considered critical for integrating clean energy, with the latest plan clarifying the agency’s power to second-guess states’ veto of projects in national corridors, in line with the 2021 infrastructure law. The Dec. 15 proposal also would allow for simultaneous processing of federal “pre-filing” proceedings and state applications for the projects. FERC commissioners agreed to solicit comment on the proposal -- despite...

DOE Launches Initial BIL Funding For Carbon Removal Infrastructure Hubs

The Department of Energy (DOE) is launching programs with $3.7 billion in infrastructure law funding to advance carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and related technology, a move that could take initial steps to advance strategies the Biden administration says could help address legacy climate-warming pollution. The programs, headlined by funding for four CDR infrastructure “hubs,” will accelerate private-sector investment and advance monitoring and reporting practices for carbon management, according to DOE. With the bulk of the newly announced funding will go...

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