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The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday said it issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to “permanently end home appliance and equipment mandates,” continuing President Trump’s campaign against limits on how much energy is used by light bulbs, washing machines, furnaces and a host of other devices.
DOE’s Appliance and Equipment Standards Program is mandated by Congress to set and update certain standards, and the notice of proposed rulemaking, or NOPR, is framed as an “update” to the agency’s methodologies, so it is unclear if Trump’s aim is to permanently disband the program. But the proposed rule would “create hurdles” to updating standards, according to Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
The proposed rule would make changes that include altering DOE’s testing procedures and process for developing energy conservation standards, adding a definition of “significant energy savings” to requirements for setting standards and including certain economic thresholds for rules.
The changes will help “safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances,” according to the proposal, and will “promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries.”
