Office of Energy requests $24.5 million federal boost for home energy rebates and seeks $311,000 to create a 'Speed Council' to streamline permitting

Kellen McGurkin (Legislative Services Office) and Richard Stover, administrator of the Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources (OEMR), briefed the committee on the office’s budget, federal grant activity and two major FY2026 requests: a federal appropriation to operate the Home Energy Rebates program and a governor’s initiative to create a permitting 'Speed Council.'

McGurkin summarized OEMR’s expanding role administering federal grants. He noted a FY2022 one‑time transfer of $15,000,000 from the general fund to cover the state match for the grid-resiliency grant program (sometimes called POREG), and that federal appropriations to the office have grown in FY2024 and FY2025 as the office accepted rounds of competitive federal grants. McGurkin also described the Renewable Energy Resources Fund and said Senate Bill 1020 would authorize depositing federal hydropower lease/royalty receipts into that dedicated fund.

On the Home Energy Rebates program (funded under the Inflation Reduction…