In February 2023, the DOE finalized coverage for miscellaneous gas products (MGPs), which include decorative hearths and outdoor heaters.
On May 2, the DOE announced it was withdrawing miscellaneous gas products as a covered consumer product under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. As such, these items won’t be subjected to “a range of unnecessary regulations on their manufacture and sale,” it said in the statement.
The updated policy “will allow the market for these products to freely develop without needing to account for new conservation standards from DOE,” it said.
The action aims to “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens” on Americans. It asked agencies to identify at least 10 existing regulations to repeal for every newly proposed regulation.
Commenting on the DOE decision rescinding rules on miscellaneous gas products, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that “under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Energy is returning to common sense—and that means giving the American people the ability to choose which heaters they use in their own backyards.”
“To date, rescinding or delaying unnecessary consumer regulations such as this has saved the taxpayers nearly $24 billion—and we’re just getting started,” he said.
The DOE said the rule was withdrawn after considering comments on the matter from various parties, according to the notice.
The items are “a mishmash of materially different products that cannot reasonably be treated as a single product for purposes of regulatory analysis or coverage,” it said.
For instance, “decorative hearth product” consists of various items such as vented gas fireplaces, indoor log sets, and fire tables,” the association said.
EPCA names “motors and pumps” as a single type of covered equipment, even though “these products have functions that overlap just as decorative hearth products and outdoor heaters do,” the groups said.
Similarly, EPCA also groups battery chargers and external power supplies under a single heading, even though the functions of these products vary, the comment said. Nonetheless, the groups concluded by saying, “We do not object to the proposed action,” while asking for better oversight procedures.
After assessing comments, the DOE eventually concluded that outdoor heaters and decorative hearth products “are not similar enough in function to be grouped together for the purposes of establishing a new type of covered product.”
Crackdown on Regulations
Under the Trump administration, agencies have taken action against various regulations on a host of appliances and other consumer products.On March 25, the DOE further postponed the effective dates of three Biden-era home appliance mandates related to central air conditioners and heat pumps, walk-in coolers and freezers, and gas instantaneous water heaters.
The decision was aimed at lowering costs and expanding options for Americans, the DOE said at the time.
In 2023, consumer watchdog Alliance for Consumers estimated that then-President Joe Biden’s regulations on appliances such as water heaters, air conditioners, gas stoves, and other devices cost the average American household more than $9,100.
Trump criticized the rules for high-efficiency water faucets, saying they essentially use the same amount of water as the products targeted for replacement.
“It’s ridiculous. And what you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer, so it’s the same [amount of] water,” Trump said.
The same day, the president signed an executive order instructing 10 agencies to add a one-year expiration date to all existing energy regulations.
“Agencies will extend only those regulations that affirmatively serve American interests. The rest will expire, resetting the regulatory landscape,” said a White House Fact sheet.
