The administration is beating its own general forecast: Former White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy had pledged during the spring the administration would do “100 rules this year alone on appliances.”

Many of the actions target the manufacture of appliances and will require industry to make products — heaters, AC units, light bulbs, and the like — that use less energy.

Here are just a few of the rules advanced this year:

• DOE finalized rules in January subjecting new dishwashers, clothes washers, and dryers to stricter energy and water efficiency standards
• Efficiency rulemakings proposed in March targeted pool heaters and AC units 
• DOE has proposed multiple rules to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions associated with federal buildings, the most recent of which ​​would require full decarbonization in new federal buildings and major renovations in 2030 
• Others energy efficiency rules have touched appliances like commercial water heaters, such as those used by restaurants, and noncondensing gas furnaces used for home heating

In their own words: The motivations of all the administration’s rulemakings are to reduce electricity use and emissions, as Biden wants to cut emissions by at least half by 2030, as well as to save consumers money.

DOE also said its newest light bulb efficiency rulemaking would improve the security and “security and reliability of the nation’s energy system.”

Contra Trump: One of Biden’s first orders of business was to sign an executive order directing agencies to identify Trump-era rules that deserved rewrites or rescissions.

Trump-era reforms to National Environmental Policy Act implementation, which were drawn up to speed permitting, were among those rules nixed under Biden’s order.

The Biden DOE’s washer-dryer rule was also a reversal of Trump-era rules that had created separate “product classes” for dishwashers, clothes washers, and dryers, allowing some models to skirt federal water and energy efficiency rules.

Rules governing light bulb efficiency that were finalized in April were themselves a rollback of Trump-era regulations designed to blunt the phaseout of incandescent bulbs.

And contra Biden: Tighter efficiency rules are thorns in the side of small-government types, who complain about the government effectively taking products off the market, and some consumers don’t like the LED light bulbs and other products DOE wants to increase.

Industry groups representing covered technologies have also taken issue with some rules. For example, in the case of the consumer furnaces rule, the National Propane Gas Association, argued that DOE’s analysis determining its rule was “economically justified” (a legal standard) was flawed and that the department exceeded its legal authorities.

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Jeremy Beaman (@jeremywbeaman) and Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.

LARGEST U.S. SHALE OPERATOR PUSHES BACK AGAINST HOCHSTEIN: The head of the largest shale operator in the U.S. pushed back on recent White House claims that domestic energy producers are “un-American” for failing to accelerate drilling, saying in a Financial Times interview that doing so would harm the industry and trigger a run on energy stocks.

Scott Sheffield, the CEO of Texas-based drilling company Pioneer Natural Resources, said taking the steps pushed for by the White House would leave companies “back at the bottom” of the stock market.

He was speaking in response to chief White House energy adviser Amos Hochstein’s call for operators to “seize the moment” and pump more oil to offset market disruption, telling FT that failing to do so would be “un-American.” President Joe Biden has also repeatedly accused oil companies of “war profiteering” and threatened to seek a new windfall profits tax on major oil and gas companies.

Sheffield said Hochstein had failed to take into account supply chain shortages that mean any significant production increase would take years to materialize. “He doesn’t realize if we wanted to grow more than 5 per cent, I’d have to call up all the service contractors; they’re going to charge me 30 to 40 per cent more; it’s going to take a year to build new equipment; it’s going to take two years to start showing results,” Sheffield said. “By that time, you may go through an oil price collapse.”

KREMLIN SAYS RUSSIA STILL CONSIDERING ITS OIL PRICE CAP RESPONSE: The Kremlin said today it is still considering what measures to take in response to the Western-led Russian oil price cap that came into force earlier this month.

Rus

sian President Vladimir Putin had vowed to block exports to all countries abiding by the $60 per barrel cap—but today’s remarks suggest that plan has not yet been finalized.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that Russia is still weighing other options: “There is some groundwork that has been put down on paper, but there are also additional proposals that are being considered and discussed,” he said. “We still have the task of working out what measures will best suit our interests. The work is ongoing, but it is close to completion.”

…MEANWHILE, EU ENERGY MINISTERS CONVENE FOR LAST-DITCH PRICE CAP TALKS: EU energy ministers convened in Brussels today to negotiate a plan to cap natural gas prices, an attempt to reach consensus within the bloc and shield consumers from sharply higher prices before the worst of winter hits.

It is the third emergency meeting ministers have held on the effort, which has caused a deep rift among holdouts— Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria— who fear the cap could risk security of supply, while others have demanded a more aggressive tool to tackle high gas prices.

The ministers today will consider a draft proposed by the Czech Republic, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency. Under the deal, a cap could be triggered if prices exceed $191 per megawatt hour, far lower than the $292 cap originally proposed by the European Commission.

But unlike earlier measures, the new draft allows the executive body to immediately suspend the price cap mechanism if it endangers supply security—which could bring some earlier holdouts on board.

“Today we have to agree on a mechanism which will prevent the European households and businesses from high gas price spikes that we have seen during the last summer,” Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela told reporters before the gathering. “We’re offering a solution that should satisfy both: those who call for the cap and those who fear it.”

JONES ACT TIGHTENED IN NDAA – ICYMI: A measure included in the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act cleared by the Senate last week could make it harder to ship fuel during national emergencies due to changes made to the Jones Act— the century-old shipping law aimed at ensuring a minimum strength for the domestic shipping industry but that inflates costs and limits availability of cargo ships.

Critics say the proposed changes threaten to exacerbate a looming fuel supply crisis this winter—especially in the Northeast.

The amendments would prohibit any vessel already on the water from obtaining a necessary Jones Act waiver. They also establish a 48-hour waiting period for ships to receive waivers and require them to get a determination that the waiver is needed for purposes of national security from federal agencies and the president.

If approved, the changes could add up to a month for oil and LNG to be shipped to the U.S., even in case of a national emergency, Sean Cota, the president and CEO of the National Energy and Fuels Institute, told Breanne.

“This change has eliminated the ability for the administration in any administration to react in an emergency,” Cota said. “This is the equivalent to requiring that a firetruck that’s already on the road [and] driving by a house that’s on fire go back to the firehouse, unload, request permission to go and put out the fire, and wait two days, minimum, before it can go back to put out the fire.”

NEW UNITED NATIONS AGREEMENT TO PREVENT BIODIVERSITY LOSS: Nearly 200 countries signed onto a pact at the final day of the United Nations nature summit in Montreal today vowing to protect and restore at least 30% of the Earth’s land and water by 2030, and to prevent further plant and animal species decline.

The agreement, known as “30-by-30,” came after two weeks of negotiations at the COP15 summit in Montreal. Signatories agreed to channel roughly $200 billion annually into conservation funds, including wealthier countries, which pledged to contribute at least $20 billion per year. Though the agreement is not legally binding, governments will be regularly tasked with showing their targets on nationally determined contributions.

Divisions over money were among the main sticking points in the final negotiations, and some observers expressed disappointment at weaker language on consumption and pesticide use.

Other critics noted that governments have never met a single climate target they set for themselves in the last decade.

AUSTRALIA OPENS UP FIRST ZONE FOR OFFSHORE FARMS: Australia opened up its first zone today for developing offshore wind farms in a region near the southern coast, a major development for the country as seeks to meet its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The government selected an area off the coast of Victoria for its “Star of the South” installation, a $6 billion, 2.2 GW offshore wind project that has been roughly a decade in the making.

The government also awarded it “major project status” to help fast-track approvals needed for the offshore installation. If all goes well, the project’s operator said, it will be able to begin construction on the project in 2025 and begin producing power around 2030.

The Rundown

E&E News Abandoned Cold War ice core points to lush Greenland future

Washington Post Disaster scenarios raise the stakes for Colorado River negotiations

Associated Press Scientists: Atmospheric carbon might turn lakes more acidic

Calendar

TUESDAY | DECEMBER 20

3:30 p.m. Location TBA The DC Council and Sierra Club will have its monthly Clean Energy Committee meeting. Learn more and register here.