Department of Energy June 30, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 413 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) directs the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish energy conservation standards for manufactured housing. Section 413 further directs DOE to base its energy conservation standards on the most recent version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and any supplements to that document, except where DOE finds that the IECC is not cost effective or where a more stringent standard would be more cost effective, based on the impact of the IECC on the purchase price of manufactured housing and on total lifecycle construction and operating costs. On June 17, 2016, DOE published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register pertaining to energy efficiency for manufactured housing. Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of this proposed action. DOE is seeking public comment on the environmental issues addressed in the EA. In conjunction with issuance of this draft EA for public review and comment, DOE is issuing a request for information that will help it analyze potential impacts on indoor air quality (IAQ) from the proposed energy conservation standards, in particular sealing manufactured homes tighter.