Commerce Department terminates advisory committee focused on renewable energy exports
April 2, 2025
BY Erin Voegele
The U.S. Department of Commerce has disbanded an advisory committee that provided the agency with private sector advice aimed at boosting the competitiveness of U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency exports, including ethanol and wood pellets.
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee was first established in 2010 to provide the Department of Commerce with advice from the private sector on the development and administration of programs and policies to expand the export competitiveness of U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency products and services. The committee was housed within the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration, an office that focuses on promoting U.S. exports, attracting investment, and defending against unfair trade.
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The committee’s work on renewable energy focused on technologies, equipment, and services to generate electricity, produce heat, and power vehicles from renewable sources such as biomass, solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and hydrogen. For the purposes of the REEEAC, covered goods and services did not include vehicles, feedstocks for biofuels, or energy efficiency as it relates to consumer goods or buildings. However, non-fossil fuels that reduce carbon consumption, such as liquid biofuels and wood pellets, were included.
REEEAC was re-chartered most recently in May 2024 for its eighth charter term. The second meeting of that charter term was scheduled to be held Feb. 12, 2025. The ITA, however, published a notice in the Federal Register that day announcing the meeting would be postponed.
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The Commerce Department has since posted a notice to the ITA website indicating that REEEAC has been terminated effective Feb. 28, 2025. “The Secretary of Commerce has determined that the purposes for which the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee (REEEAC) was established have been fulfilled,” the agency said in the notice.
At the time it was disbanded, the committee had 28 industry members, including those representing U.S. pellet producer Lignetics and renewable fuel trade groups Growth Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association.
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