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DOE nixes key Trump-era roadblocks for updating appliance efficiency standards
(ACEEE blog, 19 Nov 2021) The Biden administration finalized a rule on Friday that will help enable it to cut greenhouse gas emissions by updating energy-saving standards for dozens of types of appliances and equipment. The Department of Energy (DOE) action undoes key provisions of a Trump administration “process rule” that had set hurdles for updating standards.
“This removes some of the big roadblocks the previous administration left behind, and now the Department has several more to finish tackling. Undoing all these hurdles will clear the way for the Department to really get moving on updating the standards for dozens of types of appliances and equipment,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said: “This administration came in with a backlog of standards that hadn’t been updated for years, as well as a series of hurdles placed in front of it. Time is of the essence because every extra month it takes to update a standard, inefficient products are sold that hurt the climate and saddle people with needless energy costs.”
The Trump administration’s process rule, finalized in 2020, added more time-consuming steps and other hurdles to DOE’s already lengthy standard-setting process. Friday’s final rule would remove several of these key hurdles. It would return the process rule to nonbinding guidance status, eliminate the strict minimum energy savings threshold for DOE to set a standard, loosen the requirements to adhere to manufacturer-developed testing procedures, and reinstate the potential for a stakeholder negotiation process that enables quicker standard setting in some instances. It would also eliminate a requirement to conduct a comparative analysis of potential standards that conflicts with statute and a mandatory 180-day waiting period between a test procedure final rule and a proposal for a new standard.
ACEEE blog, 19 Nov 2021: DOE nixes key Trump-era roadblocks for updating appliance efficiency standards
