The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that James M. Owendoff, who has served as a senior advisor to the assistant secretary in the office of Environmental Management (EM) since January 2010, has been named principal deputy assistant secretary in the office of Environmental Management.
The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) has published a final rule in the Federal Register in the certain equipment classes of walk-in cooler and freezer (WICF) refrigeration systems — 82FR31808 (July 10, 2017).
Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) took the concerns of the HVACR industry straight to Washington via its annual HARDI Congressional Fly-In May 23-24.
Even without the administration passing much new legislation concerning contractors, there are already a number of HVAC regulations that contractors need to keep in mind this year. Some have already went into effect while others will be rolling out soon.
A set of recently enacted energy conservation standards for commercial air conditioners, heat pumps, and warm-air furnaces, otherwise known as rooftop units (RTUs), are set to go into effect in 2018 and 2023 and should, most definitely, be on the radar of all commercial HVAC contractors and manufacturers.
According to Secretary Rick Perry, in a statement released June 1, 2017, “Today, the president announced that the U.S. will no longer be bound by an agreement unilaterally entered into by the Obama administration. This was neither submitted to nor ratified by the U.S. Senate and is not in the best long term economic interest of the U.S. President Trump’s decision will prove to be the right course of action and one I fully support.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the efforts of 345 leading public and private sector organizations in the Better Buildings Challenge have led to a combined 240 trillion Btu and an estimated $1.9 billion in cumulative energy and cost savings.
While many officials representing several leading HVACR industry associations applaud the Trump administration’s initial efforts on tax reform, they’re still actively lobbying in Washington on the industry’s behalf.
The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) has decided that U.S. industry is being materially injured by imports of refrigerant R-134a from China that are being “dumped” in the U.S. The USITC’s affirmative determination paves the way for the U.S Department of Commerce to issue an anti-dumping duty order.
On March 28, Trump issued the Energy Independence executive order, which directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin reviewing — and presumably weaken the provisions of — the Clean Power Plan. The order is also designed to decrease the nation’s dependence on imported fuels, mainly by helping revive the coal industry.