Department of Energy January 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and Title 41, Code of Federal Regulations, and following consultation with the Committee Management Secretariat, General Services Administration, notice is hereby given that the National Petroleum Council has been renewed for a two-year period. The Council will continue to provide advice, information, and recommendations to the Secretary of Energy on matters relating to oil and natural gas, or the oil and natural gas industries. The Secretary of Energy has determined that renewal of the National Petroleum Council is essential to the conduct of the Department's business and in the public interest in connection with the performance of duties imposed by law upon the Department of Energy. The Council will continue to operate in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the General Services Administration Final Rule on Federal Advisory Committee Management, and other directives and instructions issued in implementation of those Acts.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is issuing a final rule to amend its regulations governing the maximum civil monetary penalties assessable for violations of statutes, rules, and orders within the Commission's jurisdiction. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended most recently by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, requires the Commission to issue this final rule.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, as amended (``EPCA''), prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment. EPCA also authorizes DOE to establish standards for certain other types of industrial equipment, including air compressors. Such standards must be technologically feasible and economically justified, and must save a significant amount of energy. In this final rule, DOE is adopting new energy conservation standards for air compressors. It has determined that the adopted energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy, and are technologically feasible and economically justified.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA or the Act), as amended, prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment. In addition to specifying a list of covered consumer products and commercial equipment, EPCA contains provisions that enable the Secretary of Energy to classify additional types of consumer products as covered products. On April 18, 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) published a final coverage determination to classify portable air conditioners (ACs) as covered consumer products under the applicable provisions in EPCA. In this final rule, DOE establishes new energy conservation standards for portable ACs. DOE has determined that the energy conservation standards for these products would result in significant conservation of energy, and are technologically feasible and economically justified.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi- autonomous agency within the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE), announces the availability of a Final Supplement Analysis (SA) of the Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SPEIS) (DOE/EIS-0236-SA-02). NNSA prepared the Final SA to determine whether, prior to implementing a Modified Distributed Center of Excellence (DCE) Alternative for plutonium operations to enable producing plutonium pits at a rate of no fewer than 80 pits per year by 2030, the existing Complex Transformation SPEIS should be supplemented, a new environmental impact statement be prepared, or that no further National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis is required. NNSA published the Draft Supplement Analysis of the Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on June 28, 2019, and announced a 45-day comment period. After considering all comments received, NNSA prepared the Final SA and concluded that no further NEPA documentation at a programmatic level is required.

The Department of Energy (``DOE'') publishes this final rule to adjust DOE's civil monetary penalties (``CMPs'') for inflation as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as further amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (collectively referred to herein as ``the Act''). This rule adjusts CMPs within the jurisdiction of DOE to the maximum amount required by the Act.