Energy Department proposes new hurdles for future appliance efficiency standards

The Department of Energy on Thursday proposed changes intended to raise the bar for developing future federal energy-efficiency standards for home appliances and equipment, according to a notice of proposed rulemaking described by multiple outlets. The proposal would not automatically end existing standards, but it would alter the criteria and process DOE uses when it considers whether new or updated rules meet the agency’s threshold for action.

Under the proposal, a future effort to require more efficient appliances would have to satisfy strict criteria set out in the rulemaking framework. One element described in reporting would require either a 10 percent reduction in energy use over a 30-year period or an energy-savings outcome measured at two quadrillion British thermal units over the same time span.

DOE also proposed an additional procedural step, described as an “early assessment,” before the agency could tighten existing efficiency regulations. DOE officials said the intent is to make changes harder to initiate, with a focus on ensuring that regulation produces meaningful and quantified energy savings for consumers.

In remarks reported by The Hill, Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said, “Every time you change a rule, you impact manufacturers all around the world.” Robertson also argued that “Changing a rule should be difficult,” and that the agency would aim for “meaningful, significant energy savings,” adding that the definition of “significant energy savings” was not previously established in the same way described under the proposal.

Opponents of the changes argued that DOE’s proposed thresholds are too demanding and would delay or eliminate efficiency standards that have historically reduced household utility bills. Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, told The Hill that the framework would require large savings to even consider a new standard, saying, “Unless a standard saves at least $35 billion you can't even consider it, even if it had zero cost.” He added that if such an approach had existed historically, it “would have eliminated many of the standards in place today.”

Utility Dive reported that the notice would “permanently end home appliance and equipment mandates,” describing the DOE proposal as framed as a methodological overhaul. Utility Dive said DOE’s appliance and equipment standards program is mandated by Congress to set and update certain standards, and it reported that the NOPR is presented as an “update” to the agency’s methodologies rather than a direct repeal of the program. Utility Dive also reported that the proposal would alter testing procedures and the standards-setting process, including incorporating a definition of “significant energy savings” and economic thresholds tied to whether new rules would be justified.

The practical effect of DOE’s proposal, if finalized in substantially similar form, would be to make future updates to appliance-efficiency requirements more difficult to issue. That could shift the timeline and scope of new federal standards for products covered under the program, depending on whether the savings from any proposed rulemaking meet the quantified thresholds and procedural steps laid out in the rulemaking.

For now, DOE’s proposal is at the notice stage, and it is part of an ongoing rulemaking process. The changes described in reporting set up a tighter gate for agency action, with manufacturers and consumer advocates both pointing to potential downstream impacts on costs, energy use, and the availability of standards intended to lower utility bills.