Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Environment & Energy,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 tips: [email protected] [email protected]. Follow us on twitter: @RachelFrazin @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 will also cover any major retrofits to existing federal building.
The department also proposed new energy efficiency standards for residential air conditioners and pool heaters. The federal government combined the building codes and the proposed standards would save more than $15 billion over the next 30 years and eliminate the equivalent of 14.4 millions homes carbon emissions.
A departmental analysis also showed that updating state-level building codes to conform to the latest IECC building code would result in a savings of up to $3.24 trillion 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 restrictionsShower heads water flow
Find out more about these new standards here.
More Americans worry about energy availability and costs: poll
Gallup’s new survey shows that Americans are more concerned about energy affordability and availability now than in a decade.
The A poll revealed that47 percent of Americans are concerned about the availability and price of energy. Thirty percent of Americans worry a lot about energy availability and cost. 17 percent say they worry a lot. Five percent do not.
37 percent of Americans were concerned about energy a year ago. Gallup reported that this figure has more than doubled from 2020, when 22 per cent of Americans expressed concern about the issue.
Similar levels of energy concern have not been seen since 2012 when 48% said they were worried about the cost of energy.
Gallup’s poll found that more Americans consider the energy situation in America to be very serious.
In particular, 44 percent of U.S. adults deemed the situation “very serious.” Another 46 percent described it as “very serious,” while 10 percent called it “not at all serious”. 32% of respondents described it as very serious last year.
Learn more at The Hills Monique Beal.
TOMORROW’S TAP
The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee is holding a HearingTo examine the challenges and opportunities facing domestic critical mineral mining, processing and refining, as well as reprocessing.
WHAT WE ARE 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 a landmark Dutch climate decision (Reuters)
Let’s not forget something fun and off-beat. It’s always the last thing you see.
This is it for today. Thanks for reading. Check out The Hills Energy & Environment PageFor the most recent news and coverage. We hope to see you again tomorrow.
