Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Energy & Environment,Your source for the most recent news on energy, the environment, and beyond. Subscribe here thehill.com/newsletter-signup.
Today’s news includes a planned presidential directive regarding electric vehicle materials, a federal energy-efficiency building code, and a poll asking Americans how they feel about energy.
Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk were the Hill’s editors. Send us your tips: [email protected]And [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter: @RachelFrazinAnd @BudrykZack.
Lets jump in.
Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to procure electric vehicle battery materials
Wednesday’s announcement from the Energy Department was that new energy efficiency standards will be implemented in federal buildings by 2023.
All new federal buildings will be required to comply with the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, (IECC), beginning next April. The updated codes would also cover major retrofits of existing federal buildings.
The department also announced proposed energy efficiency standards to residential pool heaters, air conditioners. Combining the building codes with the proposed proposals, the federal government estimates that the proposals will save more than $15B over the next three decades and eliminate carbon emissions equivalent to 14.4M homes.
A similar analysis by departments found that state-level updates to comply the latest IECC Building Codes would help to save as much as $3.24 billion annually in energy costs. State-owned buildings would not need to comply with the codes.
What’s next? According to the department, the proposals are part of larger Biden administration plans that will issue more than 100 appliance standards by the end the year. This would lead to an average savings of over $100 per household in the U.S. These rules are expected to reduce emissions by the equivalent of removing 7.9 millions cars from the roads over a 30-year span.
Already, the Trump-era energy efficiency standard rollbacks have been reversed by the Trump administration for consumer products. Restoring 2013 restrictionsOn water flow for showerheads
Find out more about these new standards here.
More Americans are worried about energy prices and availability: poll
Gallup’s new survey shows that Americans are more concerned about energy affordability and availability now than in a decade.
The According to a poll,47 percent of Americans are concerned about the availability and price of energy. 30 percent of Americans said they worry a lot, 17 percent said they worry a lot, and 5 percent said that they don’t worry at all.
37 percent of people expressed concern about energy a year ago. Gallup reported that this number has more than doubled in the past year, when 22 percent of Americans expressed great concern about energy.
Similar levels have not been observed since 2012, when 48% of respondents said they were concerned about energy costs.
Gallup’s poll also found more people found the energy situation in the U.S. to be very serious.
Specifically, 44 percent of U.S. adults said the situation was “very serious.” Another 46 percent called it “fairly serious” and 10 percent said it was “not at all serious.” Last year, 32 percent of respondents described the situation as very serious.
Learn more at The Hills Monique Beal.
ON TAP FOR TOMORROW
The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee will host a HearingTo examine the challenges and opportunities facing domestic critical mineral mining, processing and refining, as well as reprocessing.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- GSA to impose the first national carbon standard in concreteE&E News)
- According to a report, wind and solar accounted for 10% of the world’s power in 2021.CNN)
- Poland claims its ban on all Russian oil-and-gas imports is the most radical in Europe.NPR)
- Shell appealed against the landmark Dutch climate rulingReuters)
Finally, something a little offbeat and unorthodox: It is always the last place you go.
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading. Check out The Hills Energy & Environment PageFor the most recent news and coverage. We hope to see you again tomorrow.
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