Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (December 21, 2023) –Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety,led his colleagues in a letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm demanding the agency use its oversight authority over the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) to investigate and stop its illegal disinformation efforts against heat pumps, a competing alternative to heating oil. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) are cosigners on the letter.

NORA is a tax-exempt organization that is authorized by Congress to collect a fee on every wholesale purchase of heating oil, and it is supposed to dedicate that funding to research and development, training, and consumer education. Notably, NORA is banned by law from using that funding to disparage competing technologies. However, reports indicate that NORA has funded campaigns against heat pumps and home electrification, in direct violation of the regulations Congress set for the organization when it was founded in 2000—even as independent research indicates heat pumps are at least twice as energy-efficient as heating oil.

In the letter to Secretary Granholm, the lawmakers wrote, “With winter beginning today and colder weather coming to New England, our constituents — some by choice, some by necessity — will be looking at changes to their home heating systems. The Department of Energy should not allow NORA to abuse its statutory authority and mislead consumers into thinking that heat pumps aren’t up to the job of efficiently and effectively providing them with clean-energy warmth.”

To help Congress better understand NORA’s activities and the Department of Energy’s oversight of them, Senator Markey and his colleagues asked for responses to the following questions by January 31, 2024:

• Does the Department of Energy believe that the NORA-funded anti-heat pump consumer education campaigns violate the Energy Policy Act’s provision that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person to conduct a consumer education activity, undertaken with funds derived from assessments collected by [NORA] . . . that includes . . . a reference with respect to the attributes or use of any competing product”?
• Has the Department of Energy been aware of NORA-funded anti-electrification consumer education campaigns? If so, has the Department of Energy reviewed any of these materials for accuracy and compliance with the Energy Policy Act?
• Has the Department of Energy taken any steps in response to NORA-funded anti-electrification consumer education campaigns? If not, why not?                             
• Has the Department of Energy designated a staff person to oversee NORA and sought reimbursement from NORA for “costs incurred by the Federal Government relating to” it under Section 706(d)(2) of the Energy Act of 2000?

Last Congress, in May 2022, Senator Markey introduced the ICEE Hot Act to create incentives for manufacturers and distributors that produce and distribute American-made building electrification products, like heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and water heating appliances.

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