Over the past few weeks, APGA has asked both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to extend the comment period in two of their ongoing rulemakings. An extended comment period would provide APGA and other critical stakeholders with much needed time to appropriately review the rulemakings, understand their potential impacts, and develop meaningful comments.
The request to DOE pertained to the comment period for its technical support document (TSD) regarding consumer water heaters (CWH). DOE developed the 844-page TSD to underlie its upcoming decision on whether to update minimum efficiency standards for CWHs. CWHs have similar retrofit installation challenges as residential furnaces, in that there are venting incompatibilities between condensing and non-condensing technologies. While the comment period initially lasted for eight weeks, the TSD was only available for seven of those weeks and supporting technical spreadsheets were released much later in the comment period. APGA with the American Gas Association (AGA), National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), and Spire requested an additional 60 days; DOE granted a two-week extension.
The request to the SEC pertained to the comment period for its proposed rule regarding The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors. While the SEC does not directly regulate community-owned gas utilities, the proposed rules contemplate the requirement of Scope 3 emission disclosures from SEC-regulated entities. APGA members can fall into this category for publicly traded companies in the natural gas industry. APGA requested a 60-day extension. Other trade associations, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute (API), also requested extensions. The SEC has not yet responded to the requests. Comments are due by May 20 if the extension is not granted.
A copy of the extension request to DOE is available
here, and a copy of the extension request to the SEC is available
here.
For questions regarding this article, please contact Renée Lani of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-0836 or by email at
rlani@apga.org.