[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 195 (Tuesday, October 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61306-61307]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-22004]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Notice of Availability of a Request for Information on the 
Defense Production Act

AGENCY: Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, Office of 
Policy, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of availability of request for information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces the notice of 
availability (NOA) and invites public comment on its request for 
information on the Defense Production Act (DPA), which will inform how 
the DPA authority provided to DOE through Presidential Determinations 
could best be used as a tool to accelerate manufacturing and deployment 
of clean energy technologies to bolster national defense, tackle 
climate change and environmental justice, and improve employment 
opportunities and broader economic prosperity for Americans. This RFI 
invites public comment on general use of DPA authority as well as 
potential program activities and/or designs addressing four of the five 
technology areas announced by the President on June 6, 2022: 
transformers and critical electric grid components; solar 
photovoltaics; insulation materials; and electrolyzers, platinum group 
metals, and fuel cells for clean hydrogen. Consistent with the intent 
of Congress, DOE plans to use $250 million of funds appropriated by the 
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to support the fifth and final technology 
area for which the President issued a determination under the Defense 
Production Act on June 6, 2022, electric heat pumps. Thus, use of DPA 
Title III for heat pumps will be addressed in a separate, forthcoming 
DOE announcement for which public input will be sought.

DATES: Responses will be reviewed and considered on a rolling basis but 
are due no later than 5:00 p.m. (ET) on November 30, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are to submit comments electronically to 
[email protected] and include ``RFI: Defense Production Act'' in the 
subject line. Email attachments can be provided as a Microsoft Word 
(.docx) file or an Adobe PDF (.pdf) file, prepared in accordance with 
the instructions in the RFI. Attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB 
should be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery; 
however, no email shall exceed a total of 45MB, including all 
attachments. The complete RFI document is located at www.energy.gov/mesc/defense-production-act-request-information. Please refer to the 
Disclaimer and Important Note section at the end of the RFI on how to 
submit business sensitive and/or confidential information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions may be addressed to 
Tsisilile Igogo at (240) 278-5471 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Securing energy technology supply chains to 
ensure grid reliability and support the transition to clean energy is 
critical to current and future U.S. national security. The urgency of 
this need has been apparent in recent months. For instance, in the 
electricity sector, an unprecedented combination of global supply chain 
challenges, Russia's war in Ukraine, and climate-exacerbated heat 
waves, wildfires, and storms have threatened utilities' ability to 
deliver energy cleanly, reliably, and affordably, and to restore power 
quickly in the event of outages. In the past year, legislative and 
executive actions have focused on building and strengthening America's 
energy sector supply chains and manufacturing base. In February 2022, 
DOE laid out the federal government's first-ever comprehensive strategy 
for securing U.S. energy supply chains, with technology-specific 
reports

[[Page 61307]]

focused on challenges in electric grid supply chains, solar PV, 
platinum group metals, and more.\1\ In June 2022, President Biden 
issued Presidential Determinations to DOE to utilize the DPA authority 
to accelerate domestic manufacturing and deployment of five key energy 
technologies.\2\
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    \1\ www.energy.gov/policy/securing-americas-clean-energy-supply-chain.
    \2\ www.energy.gov/articles/president-biden-invokes-defense-production-act-accelerate-domestic-manufacturing-clean.
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    Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also 
known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL),\3\ which invests over 
$22 billion in several clean energy supply chains, including 
technologies such as batteries, carbon capture, clean hydrogen, nuclear 
energy as well as critical minerals used in multiple clean energy 
technologies.\4\ Most recently, Congress passed significant investments 
in clean energy supply chains through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) 
\5\ and the CHIPS and Science Act (CHIPS Act).\6\
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    \3\ www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684.
    \4\ www.energy.gov/policy/articles/americas-strategy-secure-supply-chain-robust-clean-energy-transition.
    \5\ www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5376/text.
    \6\ www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/CFC99CC6-CE84-4B1A-8BBF-8D2E84BD7965.
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    IRA energy investments total approximately $369 billion over the 
next 10 years,\7\ which will help drive deployment and manufacturing of 
clean energy technologies, while the CHIPS Act provides more than $52.7 
billion over the next 10 years to restart and expand the development 
and manufacturing of the domestic semiconductors industry.\8\ Further, 
section 30001 of the IRA appropriates $500 million to DPA. Consistent 
with Congressional intent, the activities supported by these funds will 
focus on critical minerals processing and on electric heat pumps. As 
such, DOE plans to use $250 million of DPA funds appropriated by IRA 
for electric heat pumps, and public comments on the use of DPA for 
electric heat pumps will be solicited through a separate forthcoming 
announcement.
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    \7\ www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/inflation_reduction_act_one_page_summary.pdf.
    \8\ www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/.
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    Through this RFI, DOE seeks comments to understand the needs, 
concerns, and challenges related to energy supply chains for 
transformers and critical electric grid components; solar 
photovoltaics; insulation materials; and electrolyzers, platinum group 
metals, and fuel cells for clean hydrogen. Responses will help inform 
how best the Department, with appropriate funding, can use the DPA 
tools to support the private sector, workers, and communities to secure 
and strengthen the U.S. industrial base needed to ensure current and 
future energy and national security. This RFI includes broad questions 
on the use of DPA authority and invites comments on four of the five 
technologies that received Presidential Determinations; information 
specifically related to electric heat pumps should be reserved for a 
separate, forthcoming comment opportunity focused on the use of IRA 
funds.
    This RFI is available at: www.energy.gov/mesc/defense-production-act-request-information.
    Confidential Business Information: Pursuant to 10 CFR 1004.11, any 
person submitting information that he or she believes to be 
confidential and exempt by law from public disclosure should submit via 
email two well-marked copies: one copy of the document marked 
``confidential'' including all the information believed to be 
confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-confidential'' 
with the information believed to be confidential deleted. Submit these 
documents via email. DOE will make its own determination about the 
confidential status of the information and treat it according to its 
determination.
    Signing Authority: This document of the Department of Energy was 
signed on September 29, 2022, by Kathleen Hogan, Principal Deputy Under 
Secretary for Infrastructure, pursuant to delegated authority from the 
Secretary of Energy. That document with the original signature and date 
is maintained by DOE. For administrative purposes only, and in 
compliance with requirements of the Office of the Federal Register, the 
undersigned DOE Federal Register Liaison Officer has been authorized to 
sign and submit the document in electronic format for publication, as 
an official document of the Department of Energy. This administrative 
process in no way alters the legal effect of this document upon 
publication in the Federal Register.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on October 5, 2022.
Treena V. Garrett,
Federal Register Liaison Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
[FR Doc. 2022-22004 Filed 10-7-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P