The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed a sweeping overhaul of federal rules, a move that would make it harder for regulators to impose new limits on how much energy is used by light bulbs, washing machines, furnaces, and a wide range of other appliances and equipment.
The department said on Thursday that it had issued a notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at “permanently” ending home appliance and equipment mandates that officials said have limited consumer choice and made some products more expensive.
While the DOE’s 192-page proposal would not repeal any existing efficiency standards, it would change the process for updating current energy-use rules and establishing standards for new products. The proposed changes include revisions to DOE testing procedures and the process for developing energy conservation standards, a new definition of “significant energy savings,” and additional economic thresholds that standards would have to meet.
The changes would help “safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances,” DOE officials said, while promoting “market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries.”
“For too long, the American people paid the price for mandates that restricted consumer choice and drove up costs. President Trump promised to end this nonsense and that is exactly what we are doing,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.
“This proposed rule will preserve the American people’s ability to choose home appliances and equipment that actually work—at prices they can afford. It’s called common sense.”
DOE will accept public comments on the proposed rule for 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. The agency also issued a separate request for information seeking comment on the methodologies used to develop energy conservation standards. Comments on that request will be accepted for 60 days after publication.
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) applauded DOE’s proposed changes. The Process Rule has been repeatedly revised from one administration to the next, it said, making it harder for appliance makers to design and produce the kinds of products that best suit consumers’ interests.
“The natural next step is for Congress to act—to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and lock these reforms into statute, so that the progress made here endures,” AHAM President and CEO Kelly Mariotti said in a statement.
Energy-efficiency and environmental groups, meanwhile, argued that the proposed changes would create new hurdles to updating appliance standards.
“This obstacle course of restrictions would hinder the department from carrying out its congressional mandate to protect consumers,” Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said in a statement. “We have products that keep getting more efficient and we need to embrace these technology advances, not reject them, especially as data centers strain our electric grid.”
The rulemaking is the latest step in the Trump administration’s broader effort to roll back energy and appliance regulations it considers unnecessary or overly burdensome.
Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order repealing water-flow restrictions put in place during the Obama administration. His administration has also considered shutting down the Energy Star labeling program, but Trump ultimately signed into law a budget package that gave it dedicated funding.
More recently, in June, the DOE ended a rebate program that encouraged consumers to switch from gas to electric appliances.
