Department of Energy August 17, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

DOE announces its decision to issue a Presidential permit to Energia Sierra Juarez U.S. Transmission, LLC (ESJ), to construct, operate, maintain, and connect a double-circuit, 230,000-volt (230-kV) electric transmission line across the U.S.-Mexico border in eastern San Diego County, California. The potential environmental impacts associated with the transmission line are analyzed in the Environmental Impact Statement for the Energia Sierra Juarez U.S. Transmission Line Project (DOE/EIS-0414). The transmission line would originate at San Diego Gas and Electric's planned East County Substation (ECO Substation), and extend southward approximately 0.65 miles to the U.S. border with Mexico, near Jacumba, California, where it would cross the border and connect with a transmission line to be built in Mexico.

On August 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced its intention to use full-fuel-cycle (FFC) measures of energy use and greenhouse gas and other emissions in the national impact analyses and environmental assessments included in future energy conservation standards rulemakings. While DOE stated in that notice that it intended to use the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model to conduct the analyses, the Department also said that it would review alternative methods, including the use of the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) developed by DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA). After evaluating both NEMS and GREET, DOE has determined that NEMS is ultimately a more appropriate tool to calculate FFC measures of energy use and greenhouse gas and other emissions. Therefore, DOE intends to use the NEMS model, rather than the GREET model, as the basis for deriving the energy and emission multipliers used to conduct FFC analyses in support of future energy conservation standards rulemakings. The public is free to send in comments on this policy amendment at any time. DOE will address comments on this policy amendment in the first notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) to utilize the NEMS-based approach for the FFC.