The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) prepared this Environmental Assessment (EA) for DOE‘s Final Rule, 10 CFR 433, "Energy Efficiency Standards for New Federal Commercial and High-Rise Multi-Family Residential Buildings" and 10 CFR 435, "Energy Efficiency Standards for New Federal Residential Low-Rise Residential Buildings" Baseline Standards Update. The final rule updates the baseline standards in 10 CFR 433 and 10 CFR 435 to the latest private sector standards based on the cost-effectiveness of the latest private sector standards and DOE‘s determination that energy efficiency has been improved in these codes as required by 42 U.S.C 6831 et seq. DOE issued its final determinations on American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE)/Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) Standard 90.1-2007 (ASHRAE 2007) and the International Code Council‘s 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) in the same edition of the Federal Register as this final rule.
The draft EA was published as DOE/EA-1872.