DOE's final rule published December 15, 2016 concerns loan guarantees for qualifying innovative energy projects. A project meeting the program's eligibility description has not thereby received a guarantee. The rule revises the Title XVII framework and specifies January 17, 2017 as its effective date, rather than announcing that applications submitted in December have been funded. [2016-30006][2016-23268]

First, eligibility concerns the project and its technology. Section 1703 addresses projects that avoid, reduce or sequester air pollutants or human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions and use new or significantly improved technology compared with commercial technology in service in the United States. The environmental purpose is part of the program's design, not a report of achieved results. [2016-30006][2016-23268]

Second, the final rule sets a financing ceiling. The principal amount of Guaranteed Obligations expected at issuance must not exceed 80 percent of the eligible project's defined Project Costs. This does not mean every eligible project receives that amount. Nor does it state an 80 percent guarantee percentage for each individual loan; the comparison is between guaranteed principal and project costs. [2016-30006][2016-23268]

Third, the October 3 proposal specified a proposed closing condition for Credit Subsidy Cost: coverage prior to or on closing by appropriation, full borrower payment of that cost, or a combination. That is not payment of all project funding. The proposal and final rule are successive documents from the same DOE process. They distinguish application, financing structure and closing conditions without supplying independent evidence of an award. [2016-30006][2016-23268]

Source documents

  1. Loan Guarantees for Projects That Employ Innovative Technologieshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-12-15/html/2016-30006.htm
  2. Loan Guarantees for Projects That Employ Innovative Technologieshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-10-03/html/2016-23268.htm