Department of Energy October 25, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed the Secretary of Energy to develop procedures for the acquisition of petroleum products for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (``SPR''). Pursuant to that direction, in 2006, the Department of Energy (``DOE'' or the ``Department'') promulgated the Procedures for Acquisition of Petroleum for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Over the intervening 16 years, the existing regulations have become outdated due to changes in statutory authority, agency practice, and market dynamics. In this final rule, DOE is amending its regulations on the procedures for the acquisition of petroleum products for the SPR to: more closely align the regulatory language with the applicable statutory language; remove outdated procedures for acquisition under the royalty-in-kind program; add procedures for acquisition by exchange to better reflect petroleum product acquisition operations as conducted by the Office of Petroleum Reserves; and increase the Department's flexibility in structuring acquisitions.

EIA submitted an information collection request for extension as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information collection requests a three-year extension of its Form GC-859 ``Nuclear Fuel Data Survey,'' OMB Control Number 1901- 0287. Form GC-859 collects data on spent nuclear fuel from all utilities that operate commercial nuclear reactors and from all others that possess irradiated fuel from commercial nuclear reactors.

The U.S. Department of Energy (``DOE'') is amending the test procedures for central air conditioners and heat pumps that will be required for certification of compliance with applicable energy conservation standards starting January 1, 2023, to address a limited number of specific issues, and making minor corrections to the current test procedures that are required for certification of compliance with applicable energy conservation standards prior to January 1, 2023. This rulemaking does not satisfy the 7-year lookback requirement prescribed by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (``EPCA'').