Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy January 11, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Energy Conservation and Production Act (ECPA), 42 U.S.C. 6831, et seq. requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish by rule building energy efficiency standards for all new Federal buildings. (42 U.S.C. 6834(a)(1)) Section 305 of ECPA, as amended by section 109 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-58), mandates the development of new Federal building energy efficiency standards based on the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE)/Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004 (ASHRAE 2004) (for commercial and high-rise multi-family residential buildings) and the International Code Council (ICC) International Energy Conservation Code 2004 Supplement (2004 IECC) (for low-rise residential buildings). (42 U.S.C. 6834(a)(2)) Federal buildings are required to reduce energy consumption by at least 30 percent, if life cycle cost-effective, over these baseline standards. (42 U.S.C. 6834(a)(3)(A)(i)) Based on an Environmental Assessment (EA), DOE/EA-1463, DOE has determined that the adoption of the new energy efficiency standards ``Energy Efficiency Standard for New Federal Commercial and High-Rise Multi-Family Residential Buildings'' (10 CFR Part 433) and ``Energy Efficiency Standard for New Federal Low-Rise Residential Buildings'' (10 CFR Part 435) would not be a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. Therefore, an environmental impact statement (EIS) is not required, and the Department is issuing this finding of no significant impact (FONSI).