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On October 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published an interim final rule (IFR) amending its loan guarantee regulations under 10 CFR Part 609 to implement the Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) provisions of the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).1
Financing through the EDF program is intended to advance the administration's artificial intelligence strategy, in part through modernizing the grid and expanding eligibility for coal and oil and gas projects, securing critical mineral supply chains, and supporting the nuclear industry. Effective immediately, therefore, the IFR expands the scope of projects eligible for DOE loan guarantees, revises application evaluation criteria, and updates program definitions to align with legislative changes. DOE is soliciting public comments on the IFR through December 29, 2025.
Overview of DOE's Loan Guarantee Program
The DOE's Loan Programs Office (LPO) administers the Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program, which supports eligible energy projects through federal loan guarantees. Since its inception, Title XVII has undergone several amendments, most recently through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021),2 the Inflation Reduction Act (2022),3 and now the OBBBA.
The OBBBA introduces several significant changes to section 1706 of Title XVII, including an increase in DOE's loan guarantee authority to $250 billion through September 30, 2028,4 a revision and material expansion of the types of projects eligible for a loan, and a rebranded title for section 1706 financing from "Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR)" to "Energy Dominance Financing (EDF)" projects. The IFR implements these OBBBA changes by revising the regulatory definitions and eligibility criteria in Part 609.
Key Changes
Scope of Eligible Projects: As required by statute, DOE provides a broader lending authority to the LPO by expanding the definition of "energy infrastructure" in the EDF program to include facilities involved in the full life cycle of the energy and critical minerals value chain, including identification, leasing, development, production, processing, transportation, transmission, refining, and generation.5
Eligible EDF projects include those that
- Retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations;
- Enable operating energy infrastructure to increase capacity or output; or
- Support or enable the provision of known or forecastable electric supply at time intervals necessary to maintain or enhance grid reliability or other system adequacy needs.6
As required by statute, the requirement that projects must avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions has been removed. In contrast to the EIR program, which focused on decarbonization and renewable energy,7 project types that are now available for EDF financing are aligned with the administration's priorities, including, among others,
- New generation facilities that provide dispatchable or baseload power, such as nuclear, coal, oil, gas, geothermal, and hydropower
- Retired power plants (or other qualifying energy
infrastructure) retooled, repowered, repurposed, or replaced with:
- Nuclear energy
- Oil, gas, or coal generation
- Critical materials and minerals production and/or processing
- Grid resilience technology, distributed energy, and/or energy storage
- New manufacturing facilities for energy products or services
- Transmission energy-related infrastructure (upgrading, retrofitting, or reconductoring)
Application Evaluation
The IFR eliminates the previous requirement for applicants to submit an analysis of how the proposed project will engage with and affect associated communities. However, applications from electric utilities must still include an assurance that any financial benefit from the loan guarantee will be passed on to customers or associated communities served by the utility.8
Takeaways
The IFR materially expands the types of projects eligible for DOE loan guarantees under the Title XVII program, removes certain environmental and community engagement requirements, and increases the total loan guarantee authority. These changes could increase program participation and accelerate investment in a wider range of energy and critical minerals infrastructure projects.
Companies or utilities with pending applications or conditional commitments under the prior EIR program should consider opportunities to reframe their projects to align with the new definitions and DOE priorities.
Next Steps
Stakeholders are encouraged to review the IFR and submit comments by December 29, 2025, via https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/FR-2025-10-28/2025-19675. DOE will consider all feedback and may issue a final rule or further notice reflecting any experience gained during the implementation of the IFR.
Footnotes
1 Public Law 119–21, Sec. 50403 (2025).
2 Public Law 117–58 (2021).
3 Public Law 117–169 (2022). For example, section 50144 of the IRA amended Title XVII to introduce a loan guarantee program (''section 1706'') for projects that (1) retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or (2) enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants, including anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
4 The OBBBA appropriates $1 billion in funding to carry out activities under the EDF program, including the credit subsidy cost of guarantees issued thereunder and administrative expenses.
5 10 CFR 609.2. Prior to passage of the OBBBA, energy infrastructure meant ''a facility, and associated equipment, used for: (1) The generation or transmission of electric energy; or (2) The production, processing, and delivery of fossil fuels, fuels derived from petroleum, or petrochemical feedstocks.'' 88 FR 34429.
6 10 CFR 609.3(e)(2). This new category is arguably intended to support the administration's objectives to support firm, dispatchable capacity and grid reliability through baseload power such as coal, nuclear, geothermal, or hydropower.
8 10 CFR 609.5.
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