On September 13, APGA joined other gas utility stakeholders in responding to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) second round of proposed revisions to the Process Rule, which is the rule that dictates the procedures DOE must follow in developing its minimum appliance efficiency rulemakings. Through the comments, APGA asked that DOE wait for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to finish its review of DOE’s appliance efficiency program before implementing any new changes to how it conducts rulemakings.
NASEM initiated the “Review of Methods for Setting Building and Equipment Performance Standards” project in 2019, with the intent for the appointed committee to consider the methods DOE uses to analyze the impact of the standards regulations it issues governing aspects of residential and commercial buildings. Because the findings of the report may inform improvements to DOE’s prior processes, APGA believes that DOE should hold any changes until the report is finalized and publicly released. Early in the process, the natural gas industry provided input to the review committee for consideration; however, the committee has not held a public meeting in over a year, and the final peer-reviewed report is anticipated to be near final.
DOE undertook efforts to modernize the Process Rule during the last administration and published a final rule in early 2020. On his first day in office, President Biden issued an executive order that directed DOE to review and revise the recently updated rule, which resulted in DOE issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) earlier this year, in addition to the more recent one issued in July. Notably, the first NOPR proposed, among other things, to remove the mandatory nature of the rule, something APGA and other stakeholders, including appliance manufacturers, strongly opposed. Overall, APGA believes that many of the proposed changes of the two NOPRs would likely minimize the transparency and consistency of DOE’s appliance efficiency rulemakings. The American Gas Association and Spire also were co-signatories to the comments submitted for both NOPRs.
A copy of the comments is available online
here.
For questions on this article, please contact Renée Lani of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0836 or by email at
rlani@apga.org.